It’s boom time for Cleveland’s male escorts. Since the Republican National Convention came to town on July 18, sex workers told the New York Postthat business has never been better, fueled by closeted conservatives looking for discrete action.

One escort reported that he’d seen 10 male clients in the past week.

“Most of them were first-timers,” an anonymous source told the Post. “You could tell they were nervous, but once they became more comfortable, they seemed to be having a good time.”

Since Monday, another sex worker claimed he had made five to six times what he normally earns. On an average week, he’s likely to bring in $200 or $300. But since Monday, he said that he had earned $1,600.

One man said he’s been raking in more than $800 per day—at a rate of $250 an hour.

The average client, according to the escorts who spoke with the Post, is between 40 and 50 years old. Many of them are married politicians or delegates who are staying in hotels downtown near the convention, held at Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena.

“When it comes to anything people aren’t supposed to be doing, they like to do it,” one escort argued. “The Republicans have a lot of delegates in the closet, let’s put it that way.”

In addition to seeking services from male sex workers, the Daily Dot reported that there’s been an influx of men using Craigslist to look for casual encounters with other men. “Married guy seeks another married guy at the RNC,” reads one ad posted to the site, while another states: “RNC visitors looking for a sub to use and abuse.”

“You want to take a break from your delusions,” wrote one poster. “I will host or travel. You will kneel and beg.”

The influx of same-sex hookups is ironic considering the party’s own stance on LGBT people. This week, the Republican National Convention passed what many believe to be the most antigay platform in GOP history.

The GOP reaffirmed its position that marriage is a union strictly “between one man and one woman,” while referring to the Obama administration’s position on transgender bathroom access as “illegal, dangerous, and ignores privacy issues.” The platform states, “We salute the several states which have filed suit against it.”

While gay escorts are profiting off the GOP’s platform of shame, women have not been quite so lucky. “Has business been better for me?” one female escort told the post. “Honestly, no.”

Gap between lesbian, bisexual and straight girls

The study also found the gap in the rate of disordered eating behaviours increased between lesbian and bisexual girls and their straight peers over the 14-year period.

Ryan Watson is the lead author of the study and a postdoctoral research fellow at UBC’s Stigma and Resilience Among Vulnerable Youth Centre (Gavin Fisher/CBC)

“The gap is really widening for lesbian and bisexual girls where it’s not for boys who are gay or bisexual, and so really [there are] some differences here within sexual orientation subgroups that are pretty alarming,” said Ryan Watson, the lead author of the study and a postdoctoral research fellow at UBC’s Stigma and Resilience Among Vulnerable Youth Centre.

The research found that one-third of the bisexual girls reported purging (self-induced vomiting), which stayed roughly the same from 1999 to 2013. That rate increased over the same period for lesbian girls, and decreased for heterosexual girls from eight per cent to five per cent over the same period.

Watson and his fellow researchers analyzed data gathered from surveys administered at public high schools in Massachusetts every two years between 1999 and 2013.

B.C. data shows same trend, researcher says

Though they used U.S. data for the study, Watson said he and his fellow researchers will soon be publishing a paper using provincial data from the B.C. Adolescent Health Survey, which gathered information from about 30,000 youth.

“We’re looking at the same questions with very similar outcomes about binge eating and fasting to lose weight, and we see the exact same patterns here in B.C.,” Watson said.

Watson said his research does not provide an answer to why these rates of disordered eating are so different between heterosexual and sexual minority youth.

However, he said there is research suggesting that interventions and other programs to promote healthy eating are not reaching lesbian, gay and bisexual youth in the same way they are reaching straight youth.

Watson said the results of these studies could have implications for how these programs are planned and created in the future.

“I’d want parents, schools and clinicians to know there are these big disparities for this population,” he said.

“We need to know it’s more nuanced than just LGB(TQ) people have higher rates of disordered eating, but you need to consider the nuanced factor and see that lesbians and bisexuals actually may need to be approached differently.”

Sulu is revealed to be gay in the movie

In Star Trek Beyond, Cho’s character Sulu is revealed to be gay, having a daughter with his male partner. Cho told Vulture, that in the cut scene, the two men share a welcome-home kiss when they are at the airport with their daughter.

Simon Pegg, who co-wrote the screenplay, had the idea to make Sulu gay. He told The Guardian that the gay couple’s representation is handled well and may be explored in upcoming films.

Takei, an LGBT activist, first learned about Sulu being gay in Star Trek Beyond from Cho, but Takei said he would prefer have a new gay character, rather than Sulu, “suddenly being revealed as being closeted.”

You can’t swing a rainbow-colored boa without hitting a gay character on television these days. They’re everywhere, from raising kids on Modern Family to serving in prison on Orange Is the New Black to performing formerly unspeakable sex acts on broadcast television’s How to Get Away With Murder. So why is it, with all the Ls, Gs, Bs, and even Ts on TV these days we can’t have one big gay show?

What do I mean by a big gay show? One that features mostly gay characters doing gay things with each other and having gay conversations about gay life and using gay words (like “brunch”). Looking, HBO’s dramedy about a group of gay male friends living and loving in San Francisco, will air its finale movie, capping off a two-season run, this Saturday. When it is gone, there will be zero such shows on the air. And it’s not like networks are lining up to launch another one. Before Looking, we hadn’t had one since The L Word went off the air in 2009 (the history of big gay shows — including series like Queer As Folk, Noah’s Arc, and Will and Grace — is short).

Yes, there are gay people all over television. According to GLAAD’s annual Where We Are on TV survey, there were 35 lead characters on prime-time broadcast television in 2015, which is 4 percent of all characters — that’s pretty much in line with the percentage of openly gay Americans in the population. There are an additional 35 recurring gay characters on broadcast television and 201 lead and recurring characters on cable and streaming shows. That is amazing, and we’ll take every one of them. But there are currently more shows about women who have survived abduction than there are about a collection of gay people.

You would think that in a world where we can see Jamal Lyon run a record label on Empire and Game of Thrones’ Yara Greyjoy try to take over the Salt Throne, we wouldn’t need a gay show. But by including gay characters in a larger cast, we only get to see depictions of gay life through the eyes of the straight world. Mostly, we’re seeing queer people depicted as members of a family or as co-workers, so we see how they integrate into society at large. That’s very important for gay acceptance, but it’s also a heterosexist view of how gay folks fit into society. Of course, gay people navigate the world of their straight friends, family, and co-workers, but there is currently no series that shows what being gay is like in a gay community. And while there is no gay monolith or one definition of what gay culture is, all gay people interact in some sort of community of their peers. Leaving that out of our depictions onscreen leaves a hole in how the world sees us, and in how we see ourselves represented.

Looking may have stumbled in its first season, but that doesn’t make it a bad big gay show, as many debated when it premiered. Did it encapsulate what the gay experience is like in America today? Of course not, in the same way Fresh Off the Boat doesn’t contain the entirety of the Asian-American experience. But at its best, it showed characters grappling with circumstances that are unique to the gay community. Patrick tries to navigate what relationships can be like in a world where gay people suddenly have the right to get married — something he thought would never happen; Agustin is with a guy who is HIV-positive, and it freaks him out; and Dom and Doris’s relationship is the best depiction of the changing nature of friendships between gay guys and straight girls I’ve ever seen in any media, anywhere. Looking wasn’t the only place on TV where you would see graphic depictions of gay cruising or two dudes hooking up, but it was the only place on TV that would have a real conversation about Truvada, anxieties about being a bottom, or the disappearance of radical queer culture as the gay community becomes increasingly mainstream.

There are show that are taking up similar issues, but they’re all happening on the web. The Emmy-worthy The Outs tackles young people living in Brooklyn better than Girls and does it mostly with gay men.The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo is about one wonderful gay life in L.A. that contains multitudes. Even the ultra-sillyGo-Go Boy Interruptedcontains a few trenchant observations of what it’s like to grow old when everyone is obsessed with youth. But sadly, these shows don’t have the exposure (or budgets) they would if they had network backing.

And a big gay show isn’t just for gay people — it’s really for everyone. In one excellent scene in the Looking movie, Agustin tells Patrick he’s scared of life because it turned out much differently than imagined; in another, a justice of the peace, played by Tyne Daly (Tyne Daly!), talks to Patrick about whether people can make relationships work. You see, gay issues are human issues, too, and it’s important for everyone to view them as such. Anyone who has blown out more than 30 candles on a cake or been in a long-term relationship can perfectly understand what these characters are going through. To think that a straight audience can’t see themselves and their struggles in a cast made up predominantly of gay characters is doing a disservice to the intelligence and sophistication of modern television audiences.

The unbelievable strides for acceptance and inclusion that the gay civil-rights movement has made in the last several decades has gotten us to a place where you can see a man get rimmed on ABC on a Thursday night. But we should also be able to see the same man talking about that experience with his friends the way Miranda did with hers on Sex and the City. All of television needs to get better about its depictions of diversity, but with the number of cable, streaming, and other outlets that are now producing original content, there has to be room for at least one big, fabulous gay show.

An LGBT pro-guns group in the US claim membership has more than doubled following the Orlando shooting in June.

They said after the attack the group was ‘flooded’ with requests for more information.

The Utah chapter president Matt Sclentz says membership has jumped from 1,500 to 4,000 since the shootings.

He told the Salt Lake Tribune: It’s really sad that something on this scale had to happen for people to realize this is a need for our community.

‘But the reality is we still get attacked for kissing our partners or holding hands in public… We get windows smashed for having an equality sticker on them.’

Obviously, as a gay man, I have to have some liberal views socially,’ he said. ‘But on this one point, I have very conservative views.’
Matt Schlentz on his Facebook profile

Matt Schlentz on his Facebook profile

The Salt Lake Tribune noted Scenltz has semi-automatic rifles similar to that used by Omar Mateen, in the massacre that killed 49 people.

Pink Pistols argues LBGTI people would be safer if they equipped themselves with guns to defend against hate crimes.

The group was founded in 2000 in response to shootings, including the infamous murder of gay man Matthew Shepard, in 1998.

They had the slogan: ‘Pick on someone your own caliber’.

The group’s president said gay club employees should have defensive shooting course once a year, and always be armed.

Scott Mogilefsky said: ‘As awful as Orlando is, I feel like this is a huge eye-opener for a lot of people that the world is not a perfect place, especially for a group that’s at risk for this kind of violence.’ – Read more at: http://scl.io/Bwn7dFfK#gs.juwfnvU

There’s been a lot of back-and-forth about whether there’s a “gay lobby” in the Vatican — Pope Francis says yes, a gay former priest says no — but now Francis’s predecessor says there was one and he broke it up.

The former Pope Benedict XVI makes that statement in his memoir, The Last Conversations, due out September 9, Reuters reports. The news service bases its report on an article published in Italian by Milan newspaper Corriere Della Sera.

Benedict, who has had the title of emeritus pope since stepping down in 2013, says the gay lobby was not large, but was rather “four or five people who were seeking to influence Vatican decisions,” according to Reuters. He asserts that he managed to “break up this power group,” the article notes.

At the time of Benedict’s resignation — he was the first pope to resign in six centuries, and his stated reason was poor health — it was rumored that this gay network influenced his decision. At the time a Vatican spokesman refused to confirm or deny the rumor. Now, in the memoir, the former pope says no one pressured him.

The Roman Catholic Church has long condemned same-sex sexual relationships; the church preaches that gay and lesbian Catholics should remain celibate. But Benedict, both as pope and as a cardinal under his given name, Joseph Ratzinger, was particularly harsh in his anti-LGBT rhetoric.

As Cardinal Ratzinger, he headed the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1981 until becoming pope in 2005. In this position he was tasked with maintaining and defending Catholic doctrine, including opposition to homosexuality, which he called an “intrinsic moral evil.”

Pope Francis, while saying Catholic teaching on homosexuality is a settled issue, has used more conciliatory language, and on his visit to the U.S. last year he met with a gay man who had been his student in Argentina, plus the man’s partner and friends. And while he has taken stands against the idea of gender transition, he also had a private meeting with a transgender man from Spain, who says Francis was welcoming and supportive. Additionally, Francis recently said the church should apologize to LGBT people.

The latest attempt comes from U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., who plans to introduce on Friday a bill requiring the U.S. census and other federal surveys to ask respondents about their sexual orientation and gender identity. Like other census data, the responses would be reported anonymously.

“The current lack of sound data about sexual orientation and gender identity in many federal surveys means we are ill-prepared to meet the needs of these communities,” he said in a written statement. “To go uncounted is to be unseen in the eyes of policymakers, which is why we must develop a credible and confidential understanding of these vulnerable populations we currently know too little about.”

The bill has one New York Republican supporter and more than 60 Democratic original co-sponsors. They include Arizona Democratic Reps. Kyrsten Sinema, the only openly bisexual member of Congress, and Ruben Gallego, a straight member of the LGBT Equality Caucus.

Grijalva led a letter by about 70 lawmakers in April that urged the U.S. Census Bureau to accelerate plans to add questions beyond same-sex marriage to its forms. Federal agencies already have been meeting to discuss LGBT data collection.

Some critics warn people may not answer the census accurately for fear of “outing” themselves to the government. But some opponents of gay rights welcome the idea, predicting data will show a smaller demographic than activists claim.

Grijalva’s bill is likely to go nowhere in the Republican-led Congress. But it signals Democrats’ willingness to push issues important to their liberal base in an election year, even if it holds up important legislation.

“If they drive the bulldozer at us, we have to push back,” U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., told the Washington Post about the Democrats’ efforts. (Photo: Deirdre Hamill/The Republic)

“Democrats (are looking) to sabotage the appropriations process,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.,said late Wednesday, after the minority party sought successfully to add gay-rights protections to a water and energy bill.

“If they drive the bulldozer at us, we have to push back,” U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., told the Washington Post.

Republicans countered with an amendment asserting religious exemptions. The controversy helped kill support for the underlying legislation, sending House leaders back to the drawing board on a key annual spending bill.

A similar fight unfolded last week. Chaos erupted when Republicans held open a floor vote on a military spending bill so that several of their members could switch their votes in order to defeat an LGBT amendment offered by Democrats.

Both amendments sought to uphold President Barack Obama’s executive order barring employment discrimination by federal contractors on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the outcome is the fault of Ryan’s own party: “House Republicans’ thirst to discriminate against the LGBT community is so strong that they are willing to vote down their own appropriations bill in order to prevent progress over bigotry.”

Bayna Lekhiem El-Amin brutally assaulted two men last year but claimed self-defense. A jury didn’t buy it.

A 42-year-old gay man was convicted Wednesday of two counts of first-degree attempted assault and two counts of second-degree assault in a fracas involving two other gay men, the New York Daily News reports.

Ethan Adams and Jonathan Snipes were eating at the Dallas BBQ restaurant in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood last May when an argument ensued between them and Bayna Lekhiem El-Amin, allegedly over a drink accidentally spilled by the gay couple. Adams and Snipes said El-Amin peppered them with homophobic slurs before he became violent. A cell-phone video, which went viral, shows El-Amin smashing a wooden chair over Adams’s head, which knocked him unconscious. Snipes says El-Amin stomped on his head and back while calling him slurs. El-Amin then fled the restaurant, but turned himself in to police custody the next month.

El-Amin — who is 6 foot 6 and weighs 280 pounds — claimed he used the chair because the men were attacking him and he feared for his life. The video seemed to dispute his claim, though he said it was edited to support their assertions. El-Amin had also lashed out at gay New York City Council member Corey Johnson and the “racist gay media” for painting the story as a homophobic attack when El-Amin himself is gay. El-Amin filed his own suit against Adams and Snipes, though it’s not clear where it currently stands.

Regardless of the impetus for the fight, the Manhattan jury found El-Amin’s actions unacceptable and threw the book at him. Arrested numerous times before, El-Amin was convicted on all but one assault count he was charged with.

Vermont became the fifth U.S. state to ban gay conversion therapy following the signing into law of such a bill by Gov. Peter Shumlin on Wednesday.

The new law prohibits reparative therapy for minors suffering from same-sex attraction, also known as “conversion therapy,” regardless of whether a young person’s same-sex attraction is unwanted and without regard for parents’ desires in the matter.

The same measure is already in effect in California, Illinois, New Jersey and Oregon.

In signing the law, Shumlin claimed that “it’s absurd to think that being gay or transgender is something to be cured of.”

He said conversion therapy has been widely discredited by the scientific community, citing a 2015 report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) which “found that variations in sexual orientation and gender identity are normal, and that conversion therapies or other efforts to change sexual orientation or gender identity are not effective, are harmful, and are not appropriate therapeutic practices.”

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“Conversion therapy to me is tantamount to child abuse,” said Melissa Murray of Outright Vermont, according to LifeSiteNews.

Xavier Persad of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) said the Vermont law is needed to educate people about conversion therapy.

On the other hand, those who support conversion therapy say the complaints against the treatment are false.

“Outlawing the therapies that help some people with same-sex attractions or gender-identity conflicts is, at its very heart, unjust. The civil liberty of individuals to choose therapies should be protected and preserved, not crushed by lawyers,” wrote author and speaker Walt Heyer in LifeSite News.

Heyer, who has admitted having undergone sex-change surgeries twice, said he later found out that the “lifesaving solution for me was therapy and restoration of my birth gender.”

Heyer said he knew of gays, lesbians and transgenders who shared similar experiences.

“Years of pain had turned many of our lives upside down. By turning to therapies, we healed the shame and deep hurt so that the pain no longer drives us to unwanted behaviors,” he said.

Mr Mahmud is part of Ghana’s conservative Zongo community and appeared to make the comment in an effort to justify violence against LGBT people.

He added: “Should we allow such a shame to continue in our communities against holy teachings?

“Certainly no, and we are very happy to chase away such idiots from our Zongo communities.”

Homosexuality is illegal in Ghana and many LGBT people are understood to have fled the country with reports of violence against them having increased.

In 2014, UKIP councillor David Silvester was roundly ridiculed for suggesting storms and heavy flooding had been caused by the governments decision to legalise gay marriage.

In a letter to his local paper the Henley Standard, he wrote: “The scriptures make it abundantly clear that a Christian nation that abandons its faith and acts contrary to the Gospel (and in naked breach of a coronation oath) will be beset by natural disasters such as storms, disease, pestilence and war.”

And last year, Bryan Fischer, of the American Family Association, appeared to suggest “sodomites” were to blame for floods on his AFA radio show.

He said: “If you’re going to attribute the flooding in Texas to some kind of supernatural cause, you can make a geographical connection between the flooding and the practice of the occult and witchcraft and the embrace of homosexuality.”

Perhaps he thought no one would pay attention to his floor speech—it was only days before the Congress would go on their Memorial Day vacations—but Republican congressman Louie Gohmert of Texas decided to give a dire warning about the perils of gay people in space.

In the middle of a Thursday speech on the House floor, Gohmert, who once proclaimed that gay-rights activists were like Nazis, suddenly started talking about the film The Martian, in which Matt Damon’s astronaut character gets stranded on Mars and is forced to survive there for nearly two years.

Posing a hypothetical doomsday situation, with, say, “an asteroid coming, something that would end humanity on Earth, as dinosaurs were ended at one time. O.K., we’ve got a spaceship that can go, as Matt Damon did in the movie, plant a colony somewhere. We can have humans survive this terrible disaster about to befall. If you could decide what 40 people you put on the spacecraft that would save humanity, how many of those would be same-sex couples?” (The implication, of course, being that they would not want to have children.)

Saying that such a situation would make the government “a modern-day Noah,” Gohmert appealed to Congress’s collective reason: “How many same-sex couples would you take from the animal kingdom and from humans to put on a spacecraft to perpetuate humanity and the wildlife kingdom?”

(Hypothetically, gay and lesbian couples could conceive children with artificial insemination, technology that should be available to any civilization that could build a space colony.)

According to Right Wing Watch, this is a more sci-fi version of a former argument Gohmert once made about what would happen if only gay people were stranded on a desert island. “Let’s come back in 100 to 200 years and see which one nature says is the preferred marriage,” he argued.

The hashtag #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend recently went viral on Twitter, with mainstream media outlets celebrating the campaign. Time reported many fans believe Captain America’s Steve Rogers should be in a “relationship” with Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes.

“Give the Marvel superhero a man to love… because he pretty much already has one,” said Jen Yamato at the Daily Beast. Other outlets echoed the largely positive coverage.

Actor Chris Evans, who plays the character, recently said making Captain America “gay” “wouldn’t be so bad.” However, he also said such an interpretation never entered into his portrayal.

The campaign launched only a few days after the hashtag #GiveElsaAGirlfriend was widely promoted by fans who want the Disney princess from the smash hit “Frozen” to be a lesbian. The campaign recently earned the support of Idina Menzel, who voices Elsa in the animated film targeted at children.

“Let’s be honest,” said Kupelian. “Americans today are forced to endure a historically sick and perverse culture, much of it driven by the ever-enlarging LGBT movement, which most recently has been imposing transgender madness, through the intimidating machinery of law and government, on the entire country.

“Yet, as I explain in ‘How Evil Works,’ there are always two engines of ‘fundamental transformation’ working in tandem: intimidation and seduction. Lately, America is experiencing a lot of the intimidation: College students interviewed on camera claim they cannot tell the difference between a man and a woman; teen girls are required to shower with gender-confused boys; and those who don’t play along with the transgender delusion are fined for failing to use the correct gender pronoun. We’re talking hardcore madness here.

“But while such harsh and intimidating tactics are winning victory after victory, an ongoing campaign of seduction is equally necessary to soften up and confuse the public mind into accepting such an insane transformation of what was once a strong and uniquely decent Christian culture. Enter Hollywood.”

Kupelian suggests the entertainment industry is deliberately trying to change social norms and moral standards. While the pro-homosexual campaign seems spontaneous, homosexual lobbying groups have already been laying the groundwork for a campaign to introduce more “gay” characters to children.

The “Studio Responsibility Index” from GLAAD (formerly the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) condemned Walt Disney Studios for having “the weakest historical record when it comes to LGBT-inclusive films.”

The organization suggested Disney should put homosexual characters in the films targeted to children. “LGBT people appearing in ‘all-ages’ programming – animated or not – is not the impossible notion it once was. LGBT people are already part of families and communities around the world, and film of all genres should reflect that,” the report stated.

The homosexual lobbying group also suggested gay and lesbian characters should be inserted into the Star Wars universe, which is now owned by Disney.

Despite seemingly receiving little credit for it from “gay” rights groups, Disney has increasingly sided with LGBT activists over pro-family groups in recent years. Along with Marvel, Disney was one of the corporations which pledged to boycott the state of Georgia if it passed a religious liberty bill. Disney animators commented in 2011 they were simply waiting for the “right kind of story” to introduce homosexual characters into children’s entertainment. Besides hosting “gay days” at its theme parks, Walt Disney Studios also lit up the iconic Cinderella Castle at Disney World in rainbow lights to celebrate the Supreme Court imposing homosexual “marriage” on the nation.

Marvel has also been attacking conservatives and Christians in recent years. Marvel introduced “Kamala Khan,” a teenage Muslim superhero, which the Huffington Post celebrated would help “vanquish” anti-Muslim prejudice. The company also announced “Northstar,” one of the heroes associated with the X-Men, is “gay” and featured him marrying his “partner” as part of a “gay wedding.”

“The entertainment industry has long been not merely gay-friendly, but gay-dominated, and continually plays the propaganda game of portraying the most sensible, courageous and sympathetic characters as gay and the most ignorant and toxic ones as bigots, bullies or malevolent Christian ministers,” Kupelian observed. “So, whether it’s the push to homosexualize beloved characters like Elsa from Disney’s ‘Frozen’ or the obviously Christian Captain America – or last week’s episode of CBS’s ‘Person of Interest’ that featured an intense, graphic and totally gratuitous lesbian sex scene between two of its lead characters – the American public is being subjected to a slow-motion mind-meld between Hollywood scriptwriters and millions of viewers.”

The Washington Post recently admitted this is true, highlighting the importance of television and other media in molding the public to accept homosexuality. According to a 2012 study in the Hollywood Reporter, 40 percent of those polled said television was an influence on how they thought about homosexual “marriage.”

130 million Americans depend on some sort of mind-altering substance just to get through life.

Kupelian argues the “liberation” promised by the left is actually enslavement and suggests promoting homosexuality to children will simply lead to more suffering as people are seduced into following a self-destructive way of life.

“Unfortunately, the propagandists’ agenda is to further glorify and entice impressionable viewers into embracing something that, in the final analysis, after all the excitement and illusion are stripped away, is really a disordered and sad obsession,” he said.

The federal Conservative Party shed its official aversion to gay marriage this weekend as rank-and-file members voted to remove the traditional definition of wedlock from their policy book – part of an effort to recast the Tories after bidding farewell to founder Stephen Harper.

“It’s about telling Canadians that you can love whom you want,” Conservative MP and leadership contender Maxime Bernier said.

The 13-year-old party, now struggling to find its place in the political wilderness after nearly a decade in power, has yet to decide on who will lead the Conservatives against Justin Trudeau in the next election or precisely how to refashion their appeal to voters.

But a majority of delegates at a Vancouver convention agreed on what they don’t want: to be considered obsolete in a country that officially legalized gay marriage more than 11 years ago. The measure to effectively recognize gay marriage passed 1,036 to 462.

‘Obsolete’ was the same word former Harper lieutenant Jason Kenney used Saturday to describe long-standing Conservative Party policy which declared marriage was a “union of one man and one woman.”

The Calgary MP, long considered a standard bearer for the party’s conservative wing, was unequivocal about the need to jettison the traditional definition of marriage from Conservative doctrine.

“I think it’s a no-brainer. This issue was resolved 10 years ago. There is no point in having … obsolete language about something that was changed in law and society a decade ago,” the Calgary MP said.

“Welcome to a broad, national political party. There are always going to be different views on different issues but when we talk about unity it means unity in diversity.”

Conservative organizers and delegates, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the party’s social conservative wing appeared reduced in strength and voice at the May 26-28 convention which began with an official send-off for former prime minister Stephen Harper.

It will be a new leader, however, who will exert the most influence over what the new, post-Harper Conservative Party looks like.

Mr. Kenney, who would be a strong front-runner for the job should he choose to accept it, signalled several times this weekend he remains undecided.

He acknowledged publicly that he’s also seriously considering a pivot to provincial Alberta politics where two parties – the Progressive Conservatives, and Wild Rose, are splitting the right-leaning vote.

“I have got a lot of encouragement to run for the Conservative Party national leadership – which has been deeply reinforced at this convention,” Mr. Kenney said.

“I also have a lot of people encouraging me to contribute to uniting Albertans to defeat the NDP.”

Mr. Harper isn’t entirely fading from the picture. He is slated to soon become a director of the Conservative Fund – the party’s powerful fundraising arm.

There were clear signs of how the Tories are changing without the influence of Mr. Harper, known for secrecy and distrust of the media.

The Tories opened all their policy debate sessions at their Vancouver convention to the media. It was a first for this party, which has less to lose now from such a move now that it’s no longer in power. But it also meant that journalists were present to witness a Muslim Conservative supporter accusing party brass of unfairly targeting Muslims during the 2015 election campaign.

Urz Heer, from the riding of Brampton South in the Toronto area, told a Conservative Party executive director Dustin van Vugt Friday that the party made her feel like an outsider. She was referring the Tory promises on a public sector ban on niqabs and a snitch line for “barbaric cultural practices.”

Toronto area MP Lisa Raitt, another potential leadership contender, said she’s proud of how the Tories opened up their debates to journalists. “Think about it in terms of a workplace – we just did a performance review in public. Even publicly traded companies don’t do this.”

She said the Tories are learning to chart their own path without Mr. Harper, the man who created the party and ruled it for 12 years.

The leadership campaign is expected to pick up speed in the summer and fall this year.

Mr. Kenney has said he will make a decision this summer and people close to Peter MacKay, former justice minister, said he will also decide shortly but might not make an announcement for several months.

Former Commons speaker Andrew Scheer is considering a run as is former treasury board president Tony Clement.

Ms. Raitt recounted a meeting she had with Mr. Harper three months ago where he told her she didn’t need his advice.

She had asked him how he would deal with weak economic growth if he were still in charge.

“He made it very clear to me when I had a meeting with him. When I asked his advice, he said I’m not going to tell you what do. That’s for you guys to figure out.”

Conservative delegates, however, also rejected a motion to support physician-assisted dying and they approved a policy change by 990 to 496, saying they support the rights of doctors and nurses and others “to refuse to participate in or refer their abortion, assisted suicide or euthanasia.”

By now, everyone must be asking “Why does the cover of Issue 109 of our magazine feature the Pope?” With sublime ambiguity and subtlety, the Pope at once embodies both the world’s most outworn religious doctrine (Islamic State doesn’t count—it’s not a religion) and, at his best, more openness than has ever been on offer—albeit merely words, for the time being at least.

The Pope heads a church that baptizes millions of men and women without their consent as infants and thence imposes its own rules, morality and lifestyle without any consultation whatsoever.

It’s a paradox with which the Pope must now grapple in terms of frontline issues like gay rights, marriage, abortion and adoption. Will he succeed in his lifetime in fully admitting LGBT members to the Church, or will old-guard views prevail? That’s the challenge that he faces.

As Pope Francis leads a softening of homophobic attitudes from within the Vatican, tour groups will soon see the gay-themed art on display there.

It’s no secret that certain Renaissance artists never led a straight-and-narrow lifestyle. Their sensual masterpieces reveal a laundry list of prostitution, sex scandals and death by overindulgence.

Raphael supposedly died of sexual excess. Leonardo da Vinci and Caravaggio were both accused of sodomy with their muse and models (young male prostitutes). And Michelangelo professed his love and desires for men through passionate love poems to Tommaso dei Cavalieri, an Italian nobleman.

Yet, until recently, the religious institutions that hold their glorified works of art most dear refused to acknowledge it. After all, sexual tolerance isn’t something historically associated with the Catholic Church or Vatican’s core principles.

But, with the dawning of a new leader, everything has changed. Pope Francis has, among other things (premarital sex, divorce), given a symbolic wink to the LGBT community—maybe he’s okay with it, maybe he’s not. But he’s definitely not passing judgment. Because let’s be honest: who did they think were snatching up all of those “HotPriests” calendars anyway?

And nowQuiiky, an LGBT-oriented travel group, is looking to capitalize on the Vatican’s newfound tolerance. Their guided tours discuss the Vatican’s art collection through the gay lens in which they were most likely created.

“[Visitors] discover new ways to look at [the] paintings and sculptures they [are] supposed to know well,” Quiiky’s CEO Alessio Virgili told the Daily Beast. “Intelligent people like to look at the world from a new point of view. It is not [just] a question of homosexuality.”

Virgili, who has worked in LGBT tourism for years, formed the tours after realizing a large interest in Italian history from the tourism community and their openness to new intellectual avenues.

“They certainly [knew] Michelangelo and Leonardo were gay,” Virgili told The Daily Beast. So he began setting up guided tours exploring queer history within the Vatican, using these famous artists as his inspiration. “For a young boy or a man, they could be an icon…nobody thinks [of them as] a person to discriminate.”

The Sistine Chapel, for instance, is one of theworld’s most visited sacred sites. And Michelangelo, who painted its awe-inducing ceiling in a handful of years, left many traces of his lustful desires for the male form—women that look like “beautiful men with their muscles” and men in sexually charged positions or locking lips. But, they’re never pointed out on formal tours.

“We have always had a guide telling this history,” Virgili said, “but now [we’ve found] many guides, and many places, and many histories to tell. [We] don’t want to hide it anymore.” He wants the LGBT community to have a better identifying connection with the Catholic faith.

“Pope Francis and his step forward on gay rights has brought back many gay people to the Church,” Virgili said in a press release. “His open mind is almost revolutionary and gay people seem to have appreciated it. Even the Vatican Museums has registered a high presence of LGBT audience in the recent period.”

That’s not to say that the Vatican hasn’t always been frequented by high numbers of LGBT members. Or, that they haven’t existed inside its holy walls for centuries.

In 2013, and article in La Repubblica, the largest Italian daily newspaper, hinted at the existence of an underground gay network amongst the Vatican’s top-ranking officials. The accusation came on the heels of former Pope Benedict XVI’s retirement—a step he took to avoid the fallout from a secret investigation into a previous leak of papal documents, aptly titled “VatiLeaks,” which revealed such a network.

Later that year, Vanity Fair’s Michael Joseph Gross tracked down cardinals, monks and clergymen who lived in Rome and identified as gay (mostly in secret) to understand the ways in which they navigate their dual lives.

It recounts a vast history of gay accusations amongst top officials. Popes John XII (955-964), Boniface VIII (1924-1303), Paul II (1464-1471) and his successor, Sixtus IV (1471-1484), have all faced rumors of sexual romps with fellow men.

And while the Vatican continues to deny the existence of a “gay lobby,” there’s no escaping the homosexual desires laden within artworks and statues throughout the papal city. Michelangelo’s fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is just one example. It is important not to omit the artist’s personal life, Virgili says, in order to completely understand the heroes of antiquity.

Leonardo da Vinci’s same-sex desires can be interpreted in works at the Vatican and in Quiiky’s similar tours throughout Italy. In Milan, they retrace Leonardo’s affair with one of his disciples, Salai, who may have also inspired St. John the Baptist in multiple paintings, including The Last Supper. Similar works, like St. Jerome in Wilderness, reside at the Vatican Museum. As does Caravaggio’sEntoumbment.

It’s a brave attempt. Sure, the supreme ruler of the Catholic faith has persuaded his followers to accept the LGBT community, but that hasn’t stopped the Vatican from shutting down art exhibitions that mix queer identity and religion.

Just over a year ago, an exhibition by Spanish photographer Gonzalo Orquin featuring photos of same-sex couples kissing in various Roman churches, was swiftly threatened by the Vatican and was cancelled before it opened at Galleria l’Opera in Rome.

While the Quiiky tour has yet to receive any feedback (or official recognition) from the papal palace, Virgili hopes to continue spreading the real history that runs throughout its art collection, making more visitors aware of its gay identity and perusing tolerance amongst the masses.

Sean Penn won an Oscar for portraying gay icon and activist Harvey Milk, Matthew McConaughey received the same honor in portraying an icon of the AIDS movement, and Benedict Cumberbatch is looking to join the ranks through his performance in The Imitation Game. Kevin Hart, however, will not be joining the club of straight actors playing gay characters. But before you start attacking the comedian, you should hear him out.

Hart hit up New York’s Power 105.1 radio station to promote his new film The Wedding Ringer, during which time he was asked whether he would ever play a gay character.

I can’t. Not because I have any ill will or disrespect. It’s because I don’t think I’m really going to dive into that role 100 percent because of insecurities about myself trying to play that part. Does that make sense?

Given the context, it doesn’t seem as though the actor has any sort of anti-gay sentiments in taking this stance. He also followed up his response by saying, “as people, I love you.” The question came up after Kevin Hart revealed that he was up for the role of Alpha Chino in Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder. After reading a draft of the script, he told the radio show hosts that he just couldn’t do the part, describing it as “real flagrant.”

In Tropic Thunder, which starred the likes of Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black and Ben Stiller, a group of actors filming a war movie are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying. Percy Jackson star Brandon T. Jackson ended up playing Alpha Chino, a closeted gay man known for his Booty Sweat energy drink and his over-the-top sexual lifestyle.

Though the LGBT community is more accepted in mainstream society than ever, Hart’s comments come at a time when homosexuality is still a stigma in the African-American community. The openly gay Lee Daniels knows this all too well, and he’s trying to break down this hostility with his hip-hop industry drama Empire. As he said during a recent Television Critics Association panel, he wants to “blow the lid off of homophobia” in the African-American community. In his show, the lead character, played by Terrence Howard, is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and is trying to decide which of his children should take over his music empire. He’s particularly aggressive with his gay son, as depicted during a scene in which the father stuffs him in a trash can after he catches him trying on his mom’s high heels. As quoted byThe Associated Press, Daniels said:

I’m glad that I can show the African-American community that this is what you’re doing to your son, this is what you’re doing to your nephew, this is what you’re doing to the kid down the street.

Kevin Hart’s statements, though arguably difficult to swallow, are at least admirable. There are plenty of actors out there who refuse to tackle such roles and tell these stories because of homophobia, but Hart’s candidness is appreciated and respectable. You can watch his entire interview below.

As he says, he might change his mind years from now, but he’ll need more acting experience before doing so.

Role models such as the Minister for Health show being gay is not a hindrance in Irish society

Leo Varadkar is nothing if not frank. “I am a gay man, it’s not a secret, but not something that everyone would necessarily know, but isn’t something I’ve spoken publicly about before,” the Minister for Health said on Miriam O’Callaghan’s Sunday morning programme on RTÉ Radio 1.

Radio volume dials were turned up, journalists’ necks got whiplash, Twitter was flooded. So, why does it matter? This is a question many (mostly straight) people ask about gay people coming out, with a sort of misdirected liberalism. Well, it matters hugely. You cannot underestimate the power of someone as high profile as Varadkar coming out, especially considering the insidious pressure many people feel not to.

Why does it matter? I’m sure there were mothers and fathers listening to RTE Radio 1 yesterday morning who worry about their gay children. They worry about them because we live in a society that still discriminates against gay people. They worry about them because gay people still have to deal with homophobic slurs.

Actor didn’t say which shows offend him but said many are ‘pushing it’

Crystal played one of network TV’s first openly gay characters in the 1970s

Shared opinion with audience at showbiz event in Pasadena, California

Criticized the show while plugging his own new series, The Comedian’

Actor Billy Crystal has said graphic scenes of gay sex on TV have gone too far, and the industry must take care not to ‘shove it in our face’.

Crystal, who became one of network television’s first gay characters on comedy show Soap in the 1970s, said contemporary programs are ‘pushing it a little too far’.

He declined to cite any examples, but implied that intolerant attitudes he struggled with while playing Jodie Dallas from 1977 to 1981 have now swung the other way.

According to The Wrap, he told an audience at the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, California: ‘Sometimes, it’s just pushing it a little too far for my taste and I’m not going to reveal to you which ones they are.

‘I hope people don’t abuse it and shove it in our face… to the point where it feels like an every day kind of thing.’

He had earlier described how audiences were slow to accept openly gay moments in Soap while it was being aired on ABC – particularly when he was interacting with on-screen boyfriend Bob Seagren, who played Dennis Phillips.

He told the audience: ‘It was very difficult at the time – Jodie was really the first recurring [gay] character on network television and it was a different time, it was 1977.

‘So, yeah, it was awkward. It was tough.’

‘I did it in front of a live audience and there were times when I would say to Bob, “I love you,” and the audience would laugh nervously.

‘I wanted to stop the taping and go, “What is your problem?”‘

However, Crystal later rowed back on his comments and said: ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything today’.

In a discussion reported in a blog on Xfinity, Crystal first blasted the today’s culture of taking offense, then expressed his regret over speaking out at all.

He said: ‘We live in a very scary time in many ways. You can’t say this, you can’t say that, you can’t offend this group, that group.

‘People come up to you and ask if you were offended. I don’t understand that. I understand it why everyone is watching out for the other person. That’s offensive to me.’

He also said that his comments apply to heterosexual sex scenes as well as gay ones.

He said: ‘When it gets too far either visually…now, that world exists because it does for the hetero world, it exists, and I don’t want to see that either.’

He and fellow star Josh Gad later referenced HBO’s Girls as a show which features large amounts of gratuitous sex scenes.

“Making the mass generalisation that it’s OK, or easier, to be out at 18 now, with that comes a presumption that your life is happy.

“No 18-year-old is happy! You will have problems. You will make your life a problem, or find problems. I wanted to explore that, to say, equality doesn’t mean happiness.”

Despite focusing on LBGT characters, Banana deliberately has no ‘coming out’ story, a usual feature of such dramas.

Mr Davies, who is himself gay, said that he was exploring new territory with the storylines of the programme and noted that soap operas were now covering previously novel LGBT storylines as a matter of course.

Leaflets were posted outside the office of a gay dentist in Massa, Tuscany, telling patients to take “due precautions”.

According to ANSA, one of the leaflets read: “Notice to patients, a gay dentist works here, you are kindly asked to be careful and take the due precautions.”

It urged patients to “take the necessary precautions so as to protect their health” and was signed by an “organism for the protection of patients against illnesses contracted in dentists’ environment”.

It named the allegedly gay dentist, and has been widely condemned by equal rights groups.

Alessandro Bordoni, president of the local equal opportunities commission, said: “We will hunt those responsible and take legal action.”

After a 2-mile walk, Paul Guerrant was just a few hundred yards from home on the evening of Dec. 22 — a cold, rainy night in Dalton, Georgia.

Guerrant, 43, had been talking to a friend from out of state on his cell phone as he walked alone across the Northwest Georgia town, 90 miles north of Atlanta near Chattanooga, Tenn.

At 9:28 p.m., the call ended, cell phone records indicate. Nine minutes later, a passerby called 911 to report Guerrant lying in the street unresponsive. Guerrant was rushed to a hospital, where he died from blunt force trauma to the head, having been struck multiple times with a hammer-like object.

Now, police are offering a $10,000 reward as they search for clues about what happened during those nine minutes, in a case that has some telltale signs of an anti-gay hate crime.

“When you see this kind of violence, typically the attacker and the victim know each other,” Frazier says. “That level of violence can occur in a random encounter but it is much more likely that it is somebody that knew the victim and that there was a personal motivation behind it. We don’t know that for sure, but that is the assumption you would make from this level of attack.”

Frazier says detectives have ruled out any of Guerrant’s known associates such as friends or ex-boyfriends as suspects in the homicide. But whether Guerrant’s sexual orientation was a factor in his murder isn’t clear, he says.

“Whether the victim being gay is motivation for the attack, we really don’t know the answer to that. At this point, we have not identified a suspect or motive for the attack. It’s possible but it’s not something that we’re ready to identify as the reason for the attack,” Frazier says.

According to The Times Free Press of Chattanooga, Guerrant had struggled with alcoholism and homelessness, but had recently celebrated 17 years of sobriety and been baptized in a local church.

Guerrant’s Facebook page shows signs of a recent relapse, as well as intense anger about an ex-boyfriend’s plans to marry another man. But on the night of his murder, Gerrant was walking home from an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

Guerrant, 43, had grown up in Dalton but left some time after graduating high school in 1991, longtime family friend Sally Higgins said. She said he recently returned to Dalton but wasn’t in contact with local family members.

“He was trying to get on the right path,” Higgins said. “He’d made big strides over the past year.” …

At Rock Bridge Community Church, Guerrant had grown involved in several small group ministries, the pastor said. And he served on a technology team to help with the church’s productions. Turley remembers him always being full of joy and enthusiasm.

“We were excited about the journey he was taking with God,” Turley said. “This has just been a terrible tragedy for us as a church. We’re heartbroken. We would love to see justice. But we’re also very grateful to have been a part of a process in his life to where now we know where he is. For that part we’re relieved.”

Anyone with information about Guerrant’s murder is asked to contact Detective Brian Shirley at 706-278-9085, dial 9 and then enter extension 189.

A new art tour celebrating the sexuality of some of the Catholic church’s most revered artists provides exciting new perspectives on the world’s best-known art

Visitors to Rome used to be told by tour guides that Michelangelo was “married to his art”. At least that was less shameless than the 1961 biopic that gives him a made-up girlfriend. It is a welcome sign of changing attitudes that an Italian tour company is now offering art tours of the Vatican that focus on the sexualities of Michelangelo and other great 16th and 17th-century masters.

Quiiky, the gay travel company that is starting sexuality-themed tours of the Vatican, sees its venture as in line with the current pope’s liberal teaching … but it’s still a long way from the official Vatican perspective on art and God.

Michelangelo filled the Sistine Chapel with nudes that embody his passion for male beauty. Meanwhile, in the Vatican Museums that adjoin this Catholic holiest of holies, you can see paintings by Leonardo da Vinci – renowned during the Renaissance for his love of young men with long hair in ringlets and his relationships with his assistants – and Caravaggio, satirised in his own lifetime as a notorious “sodomite”.

The Catholic church and art historians besotted with religion have for a long time chosen to ignore or deny the sensual side of these artists, in spite of ample contemporary evidence that it was never a secret. Caravaggio is, today, the most contentious. Church-addled scholars insist that his homosexuality is a modern invention, the more sophisticated citing the French theorist Michel Foucault who saw gay identity and sexuality itself as modern constructs (Renaissance Italy however had a very modern notion of gay people). You can argue forever about Caravaggio because the surviving documents of his life are so slim.

This is where Michelangelo Buonarroti, so famous he gets taken for granted, suddenly takes on an exciting new character. Michelangelo left more evidence of his sexual and emotional life than almost anyone else in his age. His intense art is itself a massive document of a life torn between flesh and spirit, mind and matter. Michelangelo’s nudes are about a lot more than sex. But they make no sense without it.

Of course they express his passion for male bodies; he left written evidence to confirm it.

Michelangelo wrote hundreds of love poems that survive. The greatest areaddressed to Tommaso dei Cavalieri, a young Roman nobleman for whom he conceived an unrequited passion. Other men are also commemorated in these verses hewn from a language of stone.

Renaissance neo-Platonism, a revival of ancient philosophy that saw love as the link between heaven and earth, offered Michelangelo a way of at once proclaiming and neutralising his desire. He presents himself in his poems as a lover of men, but also as pure spirit.

That didn’t stop religious zealots accusing him in his lifetime of filling the Sistine Chapel with gay art. When Michelangelo painted the Last Judgement on its altar wall, pious critics claimed his pictures were more suitable for a bathhouse than God’s house – which probably reveals a lot about Renaissance bathhouses. Soon after his death the Vatican got to work bowdlerising these nudes.

Art history added its own layers of denial, turning Michelangelo into a remote bore. Only now is the heroism of his sexuality becoming well known. Modern books about Michelangelo no longer try to claim he was married to his art. He was gay. And the Vatican should be proud.

Brand expert, Kenny Badmus who took to his Facebook page to reveal he was HIV positive on Dec. 1st, this morning took to his wall again to reveal that he is gay. He wrote about how he got married and led a false life just to satisfy society and how he told his ex-wife before they got married that he’s gay and how she didn’t care hoping he would, with time, stop being gay.He also talked about how she allegedly victimized him when he eventually got fed up and asked for a divorce 6 years after they got married and had a child together. Kenny said he decided to share his experience to mark the one year anniversary of the Anti gay law which was passed on Jan 7th 2014. Read what he wrote after the cut.

When I first told my ex-wife that I was gay, we were far from being married. I wanted her to find other men honorably, who had a thing for women. I never did. I ‘swear down.’ I was only obeying the popular demand of traditions. Now, this was my terrible mistake. No one should live their life based on dogmas and other people’s expectations. As far as I could remember, even though I was always dating girls, I had always preferred being with a man. I had fought it with every fiber of spirituality in me as a Pentecostal preacher boy (find details and journeys in my book ‘THE EXODUS.’) The more I fought my s*xual preference for men, the more I became more miserable. Unfortunately, as erroneously believed, s*x wasn’t the problem. I had been having s*x with women as far back as a twelve-year-old. se*uality is whom we are emotionally present with, not whom we are sleeping with. And oh boy, she really tried to make me a heterosexual. But I’m still not, sadly.

One of those pre-marriage days, while we were with our marriage counseling team, I brought up the issue again – that I had always had a preference for men. I wanted the Ministers to dissuade her from the marriage. I just couldn’t put a ring on a fat big lie. My father taught me one principle: DIE FOR YOUR OWN TRUTH, EVEN IF IT’S UNPOPULAR, BUT DON’T HARM OTHERS WITH IT. She was so happy to tell the ministers, as quickly as she could, that my feelings for men would all be gone, because she believed it was a childhood disorder. I guess she meant she was going to f**k my brains into heterosexuality. This is a mistake a lot of us make. We all want to change people to conform to our preferences. We find it easier to play god in the lives of people we did not make.
After six years together, I knew I was not getting any better. I STILL LOVED MEN. And one day, because I didn’t want to cheat on her, I humbly asked her that we should go our separate ways. That was when all hell broke loose. She suddenly forgot about how it all started. In court, she told the Judge how she suddenly found out that I was gay, and how it’s against the Law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In other words, she wanted me sentenced to the new 14 years jail term served by the Nigerian government. Luckily, I was in a civil court. Sadly, that day, I had to duck my face in shame as the crowd jeered at me for being whom I had always been. ‘You faggot’ ‘Oh what a shameful man!’ ‘homo!’ ‘Na wa o ‘ I still don’t know how I walked out of the court premises that day. ( this case is still ongoing) What about my business.? Tell any client in Nigeria that you are gay, and you lose their business. That’s exactly what happened. I lost friends, businesses, sponsorships and family members. I had to start my life all again. Applied for a new job. Get back to school. Although my ex-wife is one of the most faithful and beautiful women in Nigeria, she is a victim of institutionalized homophobia. Just like many people who are reading this.

It will be exactly a year today, when Nigeria instituted a law to jail people like me. What’s our offense? Because we are simply wired differently. There are only about 5 to 10% of homosexuals in every population as cited by popular findings and documents. Why is a 90% dominant population afraid of its 10%? Shouldn’t you care about us? Don’t you think it’s a lot easier to be seen as part of the 90%? And before you throw those religious verses on us for being wired differently, I want to leave you with my favorite Bible verses from Romans 8:Italics mine:
That Nothing Can Separate Us from ( the universal narrative of ) God’s Love
31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son ( in the popular narratives according to the Christian Faith ) but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one…

38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in ( in the narrative of ) Christ Jesus our Lord

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, the top elected Republican in Florida, says state Attorney General Pam Bondi should appeal a court decision that paved the way for the same-sex marriages that began in the state this week.

In any event, Rubio said he thinks the U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide the issue, a growing possibility. States are rapidly allowing gay marriage while a federal court in Ohio recently upheld a ban. On Friday, the high court could begin deliberations on whether to decide the issue for the country.

“I do not believe that there is a U.S. Constitutional right to same-sex marriage,” Rubio said in an interview with Florida reporters on Wednesday afternoon. “Now as I’ve said before, states have a right to change their laws. I don’t believe it’s unconstitutional. I just don’t believe there’s a constitutional right to it.

“States have always defined marriage in the laws and if a state wants to change its marriage laws, it should do so by petitioning their elected representatives in the legislature, and in the case of Florida, by placing on the ballot a question on the issue,” he continued. “I’m against it. I don’t agree with it. But we’re in a democracy and people can debate those issues and ultimately it will be decided through that process.”

Rubio’s comments come as Bondi, who had pursued challenges to same-sex marriages, has been vague about what she will do now. Her office is reviewing options. Rubio’s comments also come as some other Florida Republicans, while not accepting gay marriage, have effectively said the courts have decided and it’s time to move on.

Rubio, who is considering a run for president, nonetheless has tried to find a softer way to talk about gay marriage. In his new book, out next week, he writes:

“Thousands of years of human history have taught us that the ideal setting for children to grow up in is with a mother and a father committed to each other, living together and sharing the responsibility of raising their children. It is for this reason and this reason alone that I continue to believe marriage should be defined as one man and one woman. It is neither my place nor my intention to dictate to anyone who they are allowed to love or live with.”

While acknowledging changing public opinion, he added: “The trend that I will not accept, however, is the growing attitude that belief in traditional marriage equates to bigotry and hatred. Just as California has a right to redefine marriage to include same-sex couples, Florida has a right to define it as one man and one woman.”

Same-sex marriage is now allowed in 36 states plus the District of Columbia.

We all know that gay hookup apps can be outrageous. The Internet as a medium oftentimes allows queer men to articulate some of their less socially acceptable fantasies through an anonymous channel without judgement (and sometimes withjudgment, but we don’t condone that).

Cue this video in which gay guys react to some of the most over the top messages (allegedly) sent via the popular hookup app Grindr. Many of these messages are hilarious because of how unexpected or unusual or straightforward they may be but we also want to keep in mind that one person’s “whoa, that’s too much!” is another person’s “this makes me feel good” (and we do condone people feeling good without shame).

That being said, we probably won’t be looking at a pan of lasagna in quite the same way for the foreseeable future.

CBS Films has said it will look into why references to homosexuality were removed from the DVD cover of the US release of British film Pride.

The film, about a group of gay and lesbian activists who supported striking miners in the 1980s, was released in the UK last year.

Pink News found the DVD cover wording had changed, removing a reference to “gay and lesbian activists”.

A lesbian and gay banner was also removed from the back cover.

The film’s synopsis on the back of the US DVD was also changed from referring to “a London-based group of gay and lesbian activists” to “a group of London-based activists”.

The banner which was removed had read “Lesbians & Gays Support The Miners”.

CBS Films, which released the DVD alongside Sony Pictures, told Pink News: “We’re looking into this now and our page for the film remains the same as it has for months.”

Ben Roberts, director of the BFI film fund, which backed Pride, said: “I’m not surprised that the US distributors have taken a decision to sell more copies by watering down the gay content. I’m not defending it, it’s wrong and outmoded, but I’m not surprised.

“It’s an unfortunate commercial reality both here and in the US that distributors have to deal with and consider in getting films onto the shop shelf. LGBT material is largely marginalised outside of rare hits like Brokeback Mountain.”

The DVD was released by the US on 23 December and is scheduled for release in the UK in March.

Pride was named best film at the British Independent Film Awards last month.

It collected three awards in total, with Andrew Scott and Imelda Staunton picking up the best supporting actor and actress prizes for their roles in the film.

Writer Stephen Beresford joked at the awards: “It took 20 years to convince anyone that a film about vegan lesbian activists was a sure-fire hit.”

The critically-acclaimed film received standing ovations at both its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May and at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.

Hit superhero television series ‘The Flash’ is to feature its first gay supervillain, and the actor playing him said it is a “huge step forward.”

Andy Mientus has joined CW network’s ‘The Flash’, as the Pied Piper.

The 28-year-old told Variety at the premiere of Into the Woods on Monday: “With the gay thing, I feel like I’m representing a whole community… People are excited to see this character, so it is a lot of pressure. But I’m glad they are introducing the character to the show. It’s a huge step forward, and I’m thrilled to help make that happen. It’s awesome.

“The universe of ‘The Flash’ has such an intense, passionate fanbase, which has existed since the ’60s, and this is the first time he’s been in a live-action, on-camera interpretation, so I hope I pulled it off.”

On his costume, he continued: “It’s badass. I can’t put it on and not feel powerful,” said Mientus, who originally auditioned to play Barry Allen, aka the Flash. “It tells you everything you need to know on how to move and feel like a superhero. It does a lot of the work for you.”

The gunmen opened fire with assault rifles while staff were in an editorial conference, killing at least twelve people, and injuring another seven.

The magazine has repeatedly mocked Islam, publishing an edition “guest edited” by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 2011.

The magazine has previously been targeted with fire-bombs and cyber-terrorism for its controversial content.

An edition after a previous attack included a poignant picture of the magazine’s editor kissing a Muslim man, with the message: “Love is stronger than hate.”

The French President Francois Hollande has condemned the “exceptional barbarity” of the attack, which he labelled an affront to free speech.

Prime Minister David Cameron said: “The murders in Paris are sickening. We stand with the French people in the fight against terror and defending the freedom of the press.”

A message previously left on their website after an attack said: “You keep abusing Islam’s almighty Prophet with disgusting and disgraceful cartoons using excuses of freedom of speech… Be God’s Curse On You! We Will be Your Curse on Cyber World!”

The Virginia bill, introduced by Del. Bob Marshall, is actually quite ingenious in its complete degradation of gay citizens. Like every “religious liberty” measure introduced over the past year, its true intent is to legalize discrimination against gay people. But whereas most of those bills attempted to allow discrimination in the realm of gaymarriage—permitting, for instance, a florist to refuse to provide flowers for a gay couple’s wedding—the Virginia bill has no such limitation.

Instead, Marshall’s measure would attach a “conscience clause” to any “license, registration, or certificate” obtained from the commonwealth, whether by a private business or a government agency. This clause would allow all workers to refuse to “perform, assist, consent to, or participate in any action” that would “violate the religious or moral conviction of such person with respect to same-sex ‘marriage’ orhomosexual behavior.” (Emphasis mine—though the scare quotes around “marriage” are in the bill.) In other words, workers in the state of Virginia need only declare that interacting with people who partake in “homosexual behavior” violates their “moral conviction”—and they will be free to turn them away.

Because the bill applies to both private and public enterprises, and because these enterprises almost always need some kind of “license, registration, or certificate” from the government, its reach is essentially endless. University professors could refuse to teach gay students; doctors in state-run hospitals could refuse to treat gay patients. Hotels, restaurants, movie theaters, and bars could simply put up a sign reading “No gays allowed.” Police officers and ambulance drivers could refuse to aid not just gay couples, but also gay individuals. County clerks and DMVs could turn away gays at the door. Public school teachers could kick out gay students. Daycares could refuse to look after the children of gay couples.

Marshall, one of the more extreme anti-gay legislators in America, has a long track record with these kinds of bills. In 2006, he sponsored Virginia’s constitutional amendment barring state recognition of any same-sex relationship; the ban easily passed but was struck down in 2014. Marshall also proposed excluding gays from the Virginia National Guard after Congress repealed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell andsuccessfully blocked the appointment of a state judge on account of his homosexuality. (The judge has since been appointed.) The judiciary is, in fact, a favorite target of Marshall’s; the delegate has also called for the impeachment of judges who overturn gay marriage bans.

Clearly, then, Marshall is a fanatic, and it’s unclear if his new bill stands a chance of passing the heavily Republican House of Delegates. Still, Marshall’s measure is a useful reminder of the profound anti-gay animus that underlies every attempt to curtail gay rights in the name of religious freedom. No matter the rationalizationsfrom the far-right media, bills promoting “religious liberty” are almost always simply pretext, a ploy to permit the debasement of gay citizens under the guise of principled “dissent.”

The Marshall bill may be more extreme than most—but the same savage homophobia that underlies it can also be found between the lines of pretty much every “religious liberty” bill we’ve seen introduced over the past year. In one sense, then, we should be happy that Marshall is honest about his true intentions. Conservatives have spent decades attempting to disguise their hatred of gays in the camouflage of sincerely held religious beliefs. Marshall and his allies unintentionally blow their cover, revealing the rank animosity behind their ostensibly respectable views. I have long insisted that “religious liberty” is nothing but a euphemism for a special right to discriminate against gay people. Thanks to legislators like Marshall, that once-controversial proposition is becoming more undeniable with each passing day.

Snoop Dogg has put a big fat target on a guy who’s now being gay bashed, and the guy is now preparing a lawsuit against Mr. D.

Cortez Booze tells TMZ … 5 days ago the rapper posted a pic of him on Instagram with the caption, “Whose auntcle is this?” The pic triggered a torrent of hate … people calling him f*****, shemale, confused, ugly, punk and a host of other slurs.

Cortez went to the folks at Instagram and reported the pic as inappropriate, but it’s still up.

So now he’s pulling out the gunz … the legal variety. Cortez has hired a lawyer and plans to duke it out with the Dogg in court.Snoop should definitely follow Shaquille O’Neal … who was sued for something similar in July. Shaq posted a pic of a guy who has a rare genetic disorder which unleashed the hounds on social media. That suit is pending.

Recently my long time friend, Lee Grady, highlighted in print the deaths of notable Christians. Ann B. Davis, beloved actress, was one of them. Yet at the same time in a publication on newsstands is the headline that she was really a lesbian!

I don’t believe it.

In theaters across America right now is a movie called Foxcatcher dealing with the true story of multimillionaire John DuPont’s killing of Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz.

The movie also implies a homosexual relationship between John and Dave’s brother Mark. The latter categorically denies any such involvement.

NFL castaway, Michael Sam, who unashamedly kissed his “lover” on national TV, was interviewed recently by Oprah Winfrey and celebrated the fact that many NFL players call him and admit they’re gay but just haven’t come out yet.

Regularly on TV celebrities and “experts” celebrate the “fact” that probably 25-30% of Americans are really gay. Accurate statistics don’t bear this out as the actual figure is somewhere between 2-3%.

“American Idol” is launching its new season amidst declining viewership. Not long ago they featured a commercial to try and spice things up a bit. A handsome hunk was struggling with his electronic device until a hot babe told him about Amazon Kindle. Convinced she had the better product, he invited her to celebrate by joining him and his gay “husband” for a drink.

What’s going on? A lifestyle that Romans 1:24-27 labels as “immoral,” “indecent,” “shameful,” “unnatural” and a “perversion” bringing a “due penalty” is conveyed to tens of millions of unsuspecting children, teens and parents as normal, acceptable behavior.

The indoctrination and propaganda coming from those advocating a gay lifestyle in our country, classrooms and culture are increasing. All of us need to take note and take action to guard those we love.

We are Being Bombarded!

A while ago I was in New York’s Greenwich Village sharing a meal when I engaged my waiter with this question, “Are there a lot of gay people in the Village?” With a sly smile and twinkle in his eye he retorted, “Everybody in the Village is gay!”

Now I didn’t believe his hyperbole for one minute but I know what’s behind that statement. Convey the impression that the LGBTQ lifestyle is simply an alternative way of living that is beautiful, natural and acceptable. God calls it “abominable” and our mission is to convey love and gospel truth in a winsome way to rescue those in deception.

But first, are you really aware of this avalanche sweeping across our society today? It’s not a trickle it’s a Tsunami!

“Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible” (Eph. 5:11-13).

Focus on the Family ministry warns: “The people behind our nightly diet of network and cable programming have a gay agenda.”

Here’s how Hollywood is promoting homosexuality right now:

Super hyped “Empire” series starts with Oscar nominee Terrence Howard having a homosexual son – and he’s a hunk.

GLAAD (The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), GLSEN (The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network), PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays),

HRC (Human Rights Campaign) and a multitude of other LGBTQ advocacy groups have multimillion-dollar budgets and work aggressively to convince Americans that homosexuality is a beautiful way of life – maybe for your child or grandchild?

What Can We Do?

1. AWARENESS – The above overview is not exhaustive but intended to alert us to this bombardment hitting our homes.

2. ALTERNATIVES – Purchasing wholesome DVD series and streaming selected programs are great alternatives. The Fugitive, Gunsmoke, Little House on the Prairie, I Love Lucy and other award-winning shows are all available and cheap. My son has two adopted young boys who are growing up with Wally, Larry Mondello, Eddie Haskell and the Beaver and can’t wait till the next episode!

3. ALERTNESS – Stay engaged and alert to teaching opportunities when unseemly characters “pop up” on the screen. Whether pausing the program for a quick moment of instruction or following up later at bedtime, in the car or at the table, skillfully share on God’s design for a man and a woman and the sanctity of marriage.

Passivity is not an option. Check out how aggressive these well-funded and well-organized groups are in targeting innocent and impressionable children. In elementary schools, high schools, colleges and the media,

LGBTQ advocates are extremely deceptive, sophisticated and strategic in working to lead a generation over the cliff to destruction.

As “salt” and “light” Christians, we represent a bulwark against this tidal wave of unprecedented evil. May all of us be found faithful and vigilant at our posts.

Vietnam taking the lead in gay rights in Southeast Asia by abolishing a ban on same-sex marriage has medical doctor Thuan Nguyen planning a wedding ceremony with his boyfriend of two years.

“I am ready to have a wedding,” he said. “Many, many young people in love are optimistic about the acceptance of gay weddings.”

The revised law, while not officially recognizing same-sex marriage, places the communist country at the forefront of countries in Asia becoming more accepting of gay people. The National Assembly’s move is expected to attract more lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender travelers and boost Vietnam’s $9 billion tourism industry.

“This makes Vietnam a leader in Asia,” Jamie Gillen, a researcher of culture geography at National University of Singapore, said by phone. “Singapore just reaffirmed its ban on homosexual behaviors. Vietnam is trying to pitch itself as a tolerant and safe country.”

Abolished Fines

Vietnam’s new marriage law, which went into effect New Year’s Day, abolished regulations that “prohibit marriage between people of the same sex.”

Same-sex marriages can now take place, though the government does not recognize them or provide legal protections in cases of disputes. The government abolished fines that were imposed on homosexual weddings in 2013.

No other country in Southeast Asia has taken as big a step toward accepting same-sex marriage as Vietnam, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said by phone.

In Thailand, efforts to address same-sex laws have stalled since the ascent of the military government in May, while Cambodia, Burma and Laos have not put the issue on its legislative agenda, he said. The Philippines is considering laws to ban same-sex marriage. Indonesia andMalaysia have “entrenched discriminatory views” against homosexuals and in Brunei, “the new penal code sets out that those seeking to be involved in gay marriage could face whippings and long prison sentences,” Robertson said.

Foreign Visitors

Vietnam, which looks to boost an economy that has expanded less than 7 percent annually for seven consecutive years, reduced visa requirements for seven Asian and European countries Jan. 1 to make the country more attractive to overseas tourists. Foreign visitors to Vietnam are estimated to have increased to 7.9 million last year from 7.6 million in 2013, according to government data.

“It is getting out that Vietnam is a more friendly place” toward gay people, John Goss, director ofUtopia Asia, a gay resources website based in Bangkok, said by phone. “Gays in Vietnam are certainly becoming more open. It has not ruffled any feathers as it might in some other countries inSoutheast Asia. It will have a positive effect on tourism.”

Vietnam is already seeing an influx of LGBT travelers from abroad, said Nguyen Anh Tuan, owner ofGay Hanoi Tours, which has seen bookings increase by as much as 50 percent in the past year.

The new law “indicates to everyone that Vietnam is opening up more and welcomes everyone,” he said. “Vietnam is changing very quickly. There are bigger gay communities and gay events.”

Tourism Impact

Twenty-nine percent of the LGBT community in the U.S. take at least five leisure trips a year, according to research by San Francisco-based Community Marketing Inc. The community generates $100 billion in tourism business in the U.S. alone and many make overseas trips, according to the company. Forty-eight percent of gay households have annual incomes of at least $75,000, it said in its 2014 tourism survey.

“Many of them have double incomes,” Goss said. “Gay travel tends to be recession-proof.”

Vietnam’s lawmakers, who initially considered recognizing same-sex marriage, believed the country wasn’t ready for it, said Luong The Huy, legal officer at the Institute for Studies of Society, Economy and Environment, known as ISEE, a Vietnamese non-governmental organization that advocates for minority rights.

“They say the society in Vietnam needs some time to accept gay and lesbians in general,” he said. The revision in the law signals to the country that “same-sex marriage is not harmful to society,” Huy said.

Vietnam, which has a population of about 90 million, has at least 1.65 million LGBT citizens ages 15 to 59, according to the Hanoi-based ISEE.

Vietnamese Perceptions

Vietnamese perceptions of gays may also change with the December arrival of U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, Ted Osius, along with his husband, Clayton Bond, and their son, Huy said.

“He promotes a very good image of a very successful person who is gay,” Huy said. “We could get more support from civil society in Vietnam because the American ambassador is gay.”

Vietnam’s leaders allow gay organizations to be established and last year permitted a gay pride bicycle ride with rainbow flags in Hanoi, even as the government cracks down on political dissent, Robertson said. More than 150 Vietnamese dissidents are in detention, according to Human Rights Watch.

Granting gays more freedoms is a way to blunt a bad human rights record, Joerg Wischermann, a researcher at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies, said in an e-mail.

Nonetheless, Vietnam’s marriage law revision “is something extraordinary in a region in which many countries have deeply conservative societies,” he said.

Nguyen, 43, the Hanoi doctor, said gay Vietnamese want to push for the legal rights marriage confers on citizens. When a gay couple ends their relationship, or if one were to die, there is no legal framework for how to split assets, he said.

“The government doesn’t have problems with equal marriage,” Nguyen said. “It doesn’t have to do with the political system. This is determined by public opinion.”

Hua Ruobin started using Blued two years ago to meet other gay men in China, setting up weekend dinners or dates in karaoke bars.

The gay dating app has been a godsend for Hua, allowing the university student in the southern city of Guangzhou to privately contact Chinese men seeking same-sex companionship.

Homosexuality is not illegal in China, but remains a taboo subject in the world’s most populous country.

“I found nine (gay friends) through the app,” said Hua, 22, who felt he could never talk to his heterosexual friends about being gay. “Now I have a group of friends just like me to whom I can open my mind.”

Blued is the brainchild of Ma Baoli, 36, a former policeman who quit his job to play Cupid to millions of gay men in China.

The free Chinese-language app uses the GPS capability of users’ smartphones to identify nearby members. As with other dating apps, users can scan profiles, chat privately with the potential Mr Right or hang out in a group chatroom.

Blued quickly found favor with gay people, adding 15 million users in two years. There is scope for expansion, with Ma’s company raising $30 million last year from a U.S. venture capital firm. Its long-term goal is to list on the Nasdaq.

“That would be an even better way to show off China’s development than a big advertisement in Times Square,” said Ma, referring to New York’s most famous intersection.

Not just a dating app

LGBT activists in China say Blued has helped gay men develop a positive self-image and fight social prejudices that force homosexuals to stay anonymous.

“It is not only a hook-up app any more, but also spreading knowledge about the community,” said Raymond Phang, an organizer of the annual Shanghai Pride celebrations.

Ma’s efforts to prevent HIV/AIDS have found support from a government eager to promote safe sex among gay Chinese.

At the Beijing headquarters of Ma’s firm, app users can take free HIV tests, administered only by gay members of a staff of more than 50, so as to minimize any potential embarrassment.

A red ribbon icon on the app gives Blued users easy access to information on condom use and AIDS. It offers authorities a way to reach out to gay men, a group the World Health Organisation says is at high risk of catching the disease.

“On the street, it is difficult for researchers to find gay groups,” said Ma. “We could help the government to help the people that it can’t reach.”

Pastor Page Brooks says he’s an open-minded, if conservative, man. Brooks, 32, a graduate of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, is brigade chaplain for the 139th Regional Support Group at Jackson Barracks and pastor to a growing congregation at Canal Street Church, just a few blocks from his home in Mid-City.

The church offers services in Spanish and its roughly 200 members are racially diverse. Several members are gay or identify themselves as “former gay,” Brooks said. If a gay couple moved in next door to his family’s shotgun house, his children would play with those of the neighbors’.

“We’d probably have them over for dinner,” said Brooks.

But he said he would not perform a marriage ceremony for a gay couple, and counts himself staunchly among the majority of Louisianians who are opposed to the idea of legally recognized same-sex marriage.

“We would never say that someone should be discriminated against,” Brooks said. “But to grant someone marriage, that goes too far.”

Discrimination has been an important topic in the Brooks household since seven years ago, when the couple, who are white, adopted an African-American daughter. They had always intended to adopt children, and indicated no race preference to their adoption agency. Since finding out two years ago they would not be able to have children of their own, they have adopted another daughter and a son, both black.

“We did think long and hard about it, but we just thought race shouldn’t make a difference,” Brooks said.

Sexual orientation, on the other hand, does matter when it comes to raising children, he said.

“It always comes back to the natural order of things, even if you take God out of the picture,” Brooks said. “It comes back to a male and female coming together to create a child.”

If a couple cannot conceive children on their own, Brooks believes the “optimal” situation for children is to grow up in a household with married parents that are of the opposite sex.

“A male and a female parent is the healthiest for children in the long term, for stability, to provide role models,” Brooks said, noting that single parents who adopt also provide a less-than-ideal environment for raising children.

“Even for a male and a female (couple), I would hope they would be together in a marriage relationship to be able to adopt,” he said.

Brooks said he realizes his views, albeit reflecting a majority across the state, put him in a shrinking minority nationwide and in New Orleans, as attitudes on gay marriage have shown a rapid shift. He asked that his school-age daughters not be identified, saying he feared they might be taunted by children at their school because of his views on gay marriage.

Given the shifting national opinion and the trends in the courts, Brooks said he expects same-sex couples will be able to marry and adopt jointly in the future in Louisiana and likely across the country.

“I think it is a mistake,” he said. “And it won’t be some years until we know what the impact will be.

“There’s a faultiness to their argument,” he said of supporters of same-sex marriage. “Those are cases that are on the very sideline of how we keep our society together, how do we keep society going, and that’s a man and a woman together coming together to have children.”

Those opposed to homosexuality regularly describe being gay as a choice, despite all evidence to the contrary. But what is never explained is why people would make this choice in the first place

I work in the field of psychiatry. I don’t bring this up when meeting people unless specifically asked, because very often people get a bit nervous if I do. There are doubtless many reasons for this, but one recurring paranoia among many I’ve met (all of whom were men, out of interest) is that I’m going to tell them that they’re gay. Because being gay is bad, apparently.

I’m not sure how these guys think homosexuality works or how you end up being gay, but one thing I can confirm is that it’s not my decision. I can’t go around dictating people’s sexual orientations because I’ve got some knowledge of mental and neurological processes. That would be classed as a very sinister superpower.

Besides, even if I did think they were gay, it’s certainly not something I’m going to bring up when first meeting someone, given how it’s a) irrelevant, and b) none of my damn business.

Debate around these things is inevitable, and so is the whole “being gay is a choice” accusation. But why is this so persistent? Those saying it seemingly believe it with all sincerity, but what’s the rationale? Basically, why would someone “choose” homosexuality, like you’d choose a new car or tattoo? As an aside, many point out that sexuality is actually a spectrum with many possible manifestations (eg bisexuality), but that doesn’t seem to be something considered in the “choice” argument.

Firstly, what makes people think homosexuality is a choice in the first place? Most cite religious beliefs, although the notion that religion is flat-out opposed to homosexuality is far from accurate, and getting moreuncertain as time progresses. Old style prejudice and paranoia seem to be more involved here.

You could also blame the media, and there may be some validity in this. The mainstream media has always been somewhat blunt or ham-fisted in its portrayal of even heterosexual relationships (for evidence of this, see pretty much any married couple in an advert), so it was a long shot that they’d show homosexuals accurately. There’s far too much of this to go into here, but one blatant example is the media’s use of lesbianism (which straight men find arousing) to drum up attention. Normally heterosexual characters suddenly displaying homosexual leanings when a boost in viewing figures are needed is a common trope these days, so you can sort of see how this might make some people think it’s a “choice”, if they lack more realistic examples.

While saying that sexuality is set in stone from birth is also not quite right, the main emphasis of those using the choice argument is that homosexuals have weighed up their options and consciously decided “I am going to be gay from now on”. Assuming this is true (which it clearly isn’t), WHY would they do this?

If we’re being generous, we could say the choice claim assumes that people have no sexual orientation up to the point where they choose one. And some people choose homosexuality. Presumably this is some time during adolescence when sexual maturity really kicks in, and you know what teenagers are like. Is choosing homosexuality just another example of a desire to not conform, like shaving your head or wearing outlandish clothes?

Also, as many have pointed out, if sexual orientation is a choice, then you should feasibly be able to choose to be straight again if being gay isn’t “working out”. And logically, a straight person could become gay too. Yet this doesn’t seem to happen nearly as often as you’d expect. Comedian Todd Glass makes a brilliant point inhis book (which is great, I got it for Christmas), which is that if you genuinely believe sexuality is a choice, then you’re not actually straight, you just haven’t met anyone persuasive enough yet.

But those who argue that homosexuality is a choice invariably assert that it is awrong choice. This suggests they believe that everyone is actually, at a fundamental level, heterosexual. So people who opt for homosexuality are consciously pursuing anything from intimate relationships to random sexual encounters with people they are not physically attracted to. Sex is a very powerful motivator, and it’s no doubt possible to have a sexual encounter with someone you’re not necessarily attracted to, but to such an extent as this? Constantly going against your most basic urges to stick to a choice you made at an unspecified point? The lifestyle would have to be very appealing to warrant this, and, as previously discussed, it doesn’t seem to be.

There’s undoubtedly a lot more to be considered that could be covered in a single post, so you could argue that this piece is a massive oversimplification of a very complex issue. And you’d be right, it is. But that’s true for the whole “choice” argument, so it’s oddly appropriate.

Overall, if homosexuality is chosen, the most logical reason people would make such a choice is that they’re attracted to people of the same gender. Hopefully you can see how this undermines the argument somewhat.

Fourteen states allowed same-sex marriage when Cleopatra De Leon and Nicole Dimetman filed a lawsuit late last year challenging Texas’ constitutional ban on marriages that are not between a man and a woman.

The couple, married in Massachusetts in 2009, lives in Austin and collided with Texas law when they could not both be listed on the birth certificate of their first child. They hope the law is changed before the birth of their second.

“There are moments in our lives that are flashbulb moments,” De Leon said during a town hall event last week, describing the decision she and Dimetman reached to challenge the state’s same-sex marriage ban.

With the case heading to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans next month, De Leon, Dimetman and gay rights advocates are holding their breath, hoping that Texas is on the verge of its own flashbulb moment. A federal district judge has already ruled in their favor, and if Texas’ appeals fail, the state may be compelled to join the almost three-quarters of the country that now allows same-sex marriage.

That sort of societal change would come at a time when Texas, the largest state with a same-sex marriage ban, is ushering in a new slate of Republican leaders and lawmakers with an even more conservative bent, including staunch opposition to gay marriage.

“There is such a body of legal precedent now,” said Chuck Smith, executive director ofEquality Texas, a gay rights advocacy group. “That all sort of collectively reaches the conclusion that the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution applies to gay and lesbian people as well.”

That is the argument that De Leon and Dimetman are pursuing, citing the birth of their first child, whose birth certificate allows only one parent’s name because the state does not recognize their union.

In February, U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia ruled that the state’s ban was unconstitutional because it “violates plaintiffs’ equal protection and due process rights.” Anticipating an appeal, Garcia stayed his ruling, leaving the ban in place while the case works its way through the courts.

Gay rights advocates, citing a raft of other recent court decisions, believe the conservative 5th Circuit may swing their way.

Conservative activists say that is improbable, and would be at odds with the beliefs of state voters, who handed Republicans an even wider margin of control in the November election.

Gov.-elect Greg Abbott has defended the same-sex marriage ban as attorney general, and Lt. Gov.-elect Dan Patrick, a state senator and Tea Party darling, was among 63 state lawmakers who signed a federal brief arguing that legalization of same-sex marriage could lead to the legalization of bigamy and incest.

Abbott’s office has argued that the courts should respect a state’s sovereignty and not overrule Texas voters, 76 percent of whom voted in 2005 to define marriage in the state’s constitution as “solely the union of one man and one woman.”

In a brief filed with the 5th Circuit, the attorney general’s office also argued that the same-sex marriage ban was in line with the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause, which mandates that laws “be rationally related to a legitimate state interest.”

Texas Republicans have long made their opposition to overturning the state ban clear.

“I think it’s important, when people talk about the momentum, for them to look at the election we just had,” said Jonathan Saenz, president of the conservative group Texas Values, adding that an adverse court ruling was likely to lead Republican lawmakers to “address that” during the next legislative session, which begins in January.

With almost a decade passed since voters approved the ban, Texas gay rights advocates argue that times are changing in this reliably red state, pointing to polling data by Equality Texas that indicates a majority of Texans now favor legal recognition of same-sex couples.

“Nowhere in my stream of consciousness did I consider this would even be where it is right now,” said Victor Holmes, who with his partner, Mark Phariss, is serving as a co-plaintiff in the case. “People know people who are gay now. It’s not those people over there anymore. It’s actual people that they know and they love.”

As a steady stream of states has begun allowing same-sex marriage, either by choice or through court decisions, impatience is growing among those who believe Texas will inevitably be forced to join their ranks.

After the 5th Circuit agreed to expedite consideration of the state’s appeal, the plaintiffs asked Garcia to lift his stay. In anticipation, county clerks in Bexar, Dallas and Travis counties said they were prepared to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and some promised to extend their hours to accommodate an expected influx of couples looking to wed.

Garcia eventually declined to lift the stay, saying it would open the doors to “confusion and doubt” as the appellate court considered the case.

A three-judge panel of the court, which includes 10 Republican-appointed judges and five Democratic appointees, will hear arguments. The panel has not yet been announced.

The Texas case is among dozens of challenges to state same-sex marriage bans that cropped up after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act in 2013. The cases have barreled through the judicial system, with the Texas case among the last to be heard at the appellate level.

All but one appellate court has ruled against bans on same-sex marriage. The sole dissenter, the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit, created a split with other appellate courts on the issue in November, making it likelier that the Supreme Court will have the final word.

Depending on how quickly the Supreme Court moves, one of the legal challenges could be taken up as early as January, with a decision next summer.

Many legal experts consider it unlikely that the Supreme Court will uphold same-sex marriage bans, citing the court’s action earlier this year when it declined to consider appealsfrom supporters of same-sex marriage in other cases. By declining to hear the cases, the court allowed same-sex marriage to stand in five states.

“It’s hard to imagine that now, after allowing that to happen, that the court would say there is no right to same-sex marriage,” said Aaron Bruhl, an associate professor of law at the University of Houston who studies federal courts. “I think the court has, in a way, tipped its hand on what the final outcome would be.”

Once, stars would see their careers dashed if they revealed they were gay. Now, says Aaron Hicklin, introducing this year’s Out 100 photoshoot inspired by great LGBT cultural moments, it’s absurd to stay in the closet

For the past 20 years, Out magazine has identified 100 gay men, lesbians and transgender people who have stood out for their achievements. In 2007, and every year since, the magazine has undertaken to photograph each and every one, using one photographer, and a connecting theme – which I can tell you, as editor, is no small undertaking. The exercise has been instructive on many levels, not least as indicative of broader shifts in cultural acceptance. In 2006, we couldn’t find a single A-list actor, male or female, willing to grace the cover. Not one. Instead we honoured Anne Hathaway and Iman, partly for their work as “allies”, but also, if we’re honest, to compensate for the paucity of recognisable LGBT celebrities.

That’s how much the ground has shifted. Of the four cover subjects in 2014, three – Sam Smith, Ellen Page and the young actor Samira Wiley – were not even out at the beginning of the year; the fourth, Zachary Quinto, came out in 2011. That was three years ago, and the sky didn’t collapse. On the contrary, Quinto’s career, on the big and small screen, has flourished. Samira Wiley, who stars in Orange Is the New Black, and Sam Smith – who came out as his career was exploding – represent a new generation for whom being out early in their careers has become an imperative, not a choice.

Until very recently, the prevailing wisdom was that an out gay entertainer faced insurmountable challenges if he or she wanted to build a career. Take Richard Chamberlain, who sat for this year’s portfolio for the first time. “I spent a great deal of my life pretending to be somebody else,” said the star of Dr Kildare and The Thorn Birds. “If I were ever outed, my career – which was my entire life, for the longest time – wouldn’t have happened.”

Today, that scenario is being flipped on its head; the closeted entertainer is becoming an anachronism. In a more tolerant society, it’s increasingly less clear why anyone would want to go through life pretending to be someone else. To quote Ellen Page: “Once you’ve done something that you used to think, and said aloud, was impossible, what could ever really scare you again? It’s kind of an awesome thing to go through in your life. Even now, press is more enjoyable because I don’t have to have certain conversations. For instance, I’m never going to have to have a conversation about a dress, or heels, ever again.”

Amen to that. Hollywood bean counters still clinging to outdated ideas of what fills seats in cinemas may recall that the dinosaurs died out fast.

In Cuba, street marches have historically been government-orchestrated events or dissident protests that are swiftly crushed by the authorities. So it was downright startling when, in May 2007, Fidel Castro’s niece sauntered down the street with a small army of drag queens waving gay pride flags.

Long before the Obama administration announced a dramatic shift in Cuba policy on Wednesday, asserting that isolating the island had failed, a couple of Western governments with close ties to the United States saw the potential to help gay Cubans, even though it meant working with a prominent member of the Castro family. Havana’s first observance of theInternational Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia marked the beginning of a remarkable evolution of gay rights in the most populous country in the Caribbean, a region where hostile attitudes toward sexual minorities remain the norm.

Mariela Castro, the daughter of the current president, Raúl Castro, has led the charge on legislative and societal changes that have given rise to an increasingly visible and empowered community. In the process, she has carved out a rare space for civil society in an authoritarian country where grass-roots movements rarely succeed. Some Western diplomats in Havana have seen the progress on gay rights as a potential blueprint for expansion of other personal freedoms in one of the most oppressed societies on earth.

Norway and Belgium have financially supported Ms. Castro’s organization, the National Center for Sexual Education, offering a test of the merits of supporting certain policies of a government that the United States and European capitals have largely shunned because of its bleak human rights record. As the Obama administration begins carrying out its new Cuba policy, it should draw lessons from the impact others have had by engaging.

“It’s fine to criticize, but you also have to acknowledge that they’ve done good,” said John Petter Opdahl, Norway’s ambassador to Cuba, in a recent interview. Mr. Opdahl, who is gay, said his government gave Ms. Castro’s organization $230,000 over the last two years. “She has taken off a lot of the stigma for most people in the country, and she has made life so much better for so many gay people, not only in Havana but in the provinces.”

Fidel Castro’s government ostracized sexual minorities during the 1960s and 1970s, sending some people to labor camps. The brutal treatment of gay men was poignantly chronicled by the Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas, who was jailed in 1974 for literary works the authorities deemed an “ideological deviation.” His autobiography, “Before Night Falls,” a critically acclaimed book that was made into a movie, is perhaps the most authoritative testimony of a particularly dark chapter of Cuban history.

Ms. Castro said she and her mother, Vilma Espín, for years quietly pressed the Castro brothers to soften their attitude toward sexual minorities. A decade ago, Cuba’s gay community was no longer as persecuted, but it nonetheless operated in the shadows. Ms. Castro, a member of Cuba’s National Assembly, opted to take on the issue.

After the 2007 march, Ms. Castro, who is straight, began a public campaign to promote tolerance. She persuaded the government in recent years to offer state-paid gender reassignment surgery and hormone treatment for transgender people. Last year, when the Assembly passed a labor code that protected gays and lesbians — but not transgender people — from discrimination in the workplace, Ms. Castro became the first lawmaker in Cuban history to cast a dissenting vote in protest. Her ultimate goal, she said, was codifying full equality under the law.

Gay Cubans say that discrimination remains a problem, particularly outside big cities. Still, last year, a woman in Caribién, a municipality east of Havana, became the country’s first transgender elected official. At the urging of Ms. Castro and gay bloggers, in 2010 Cuba began voting in favor of resolutions supporting gay rights at the United Nations, breaking ranks with allies in Africa and the Caribbean.

While widely admired, Ms. Castro and her state-run organization are not without critics in Cuba’s gay community. In 2011, Yasmín Portales Machado, a gay rights activist, decided to start a new group called Proyecto Arco Iris, or Rainbow, feeling it was necessary to have a platform for other voices and ideas.

In 2012, on the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, Arco Iris convened a public kissing meet-up to promote diversity and equality. Hours before it began, a security official called Ms. Machado. Next time, he asked, please pick a venue in a part of Havana that isn’t close to sensitive government buildings. The kissing event was a success. The call “was a gay-friendly gesture from state security,” she said, laughing.

The Obama administration has spent millions of dollars promoting gay rights around the world and has made the issue a diplomatic priority. In the Dominican Republic, Washington took a bold stance last year when officials appeared unwilling to accept Wally Brewster, the openly gay entrepreneur President Obama nominated as ambassador. The State Department warned Santo Domingo that if it turned Mr. Brewster down, the country would find itself without an American envoy for a long time.

When Dominican officials acquiesced, they asked that Mr. Brewster be discreet about his sexual orientation. American officials responded that he, like all ambassadors in the region, would be expected to champion gay rights. To make the point, the State Department released a video of Mr. Brewster and his partner expressing their enthusiasm for the new job.

By contrast, American officials have had few opportunities to support Cuba’s gay rights evolution and have been conflicted on how to handle Ms. Castro. When the Philadelphia-based Equality Forum nominated her for an award last year, American officials initially said they would not give her a visa. After the group protested, they relented.

Ms. Machado said most gay rights activists on the island have not accepted support from Washington because its policy toward Cuba was predicated on regime change. “While the United States is the enemy of our state, we can’t work with them,” she said recently in an interview in Havana. “Any support you receive makes you a traitor.”

That entrenched view has stymied American efforts to promote things such as freedom of assembly and freedom of the press. President Obama’s changed policy will make engagement with Americans more palatable.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against a western Indiana school district seeking to force it to recognize a club for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students and those who support them.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Terre Haute contends the North Putnam Community School Corp. in Bainbridge, 35 miles west of Indianapolis, is violating the First Amendment rights of the Gay-Straight Alliance and the three students who are now members. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of those students at North Putnam High School — a senior, a junior and a freshman.

Acting school Superintendent Terry Tippin said Tuesday he’s aware of the lawsuit but said he had no comment. A lawyer for the school didn’t immediately respond to a message.

The school board voted Nov. 20 on whether to recognize the club and split evenly with one member abstaining. The effect was the club wasn’t approved.

Because the club hasn’t been recognized by the school board, the lawsuit says, its members aren’t allowed to meet at the school, promote its activities on school grounds or associate with the school in any way. Ken Falk, the ACLU of Indiana legal director, said there’s no reason for the school board to reject the club when it allows other clubs not sponsored by the school to meet at the high school.

The lawsuit contends that students who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender “or are perceived as such” have frequently been harassed and bullied at North Putnam High School. It says the students seeking approval for the club “believe that having a formal club that would meet during school non-instructional time would be extremely beneficial to these students as well as to the student body as a whole.”

The lawsuit also says the club’s ability to function is greatly diminished because the students are not able to meet at the same time that other clubs meet or advertise at school.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare that the school corporation has violated the Constitution, to grant an injunction requiring the corporation to approve the club’s application and order the corporation to pay attorney fees and award all other proper relief.

A TLC special looks at Mormon men who are attracted to other men, yet have married women.

The saying goes, denial is not just a river in Egypt. And the people in a documentary special to air on the Learning Channelin January apparently live somewhere near there, despite it being set in Salt Lake City. The program focuses on the lives of men practicing the Mormon faith who are sexually attracted to men.

And before you can say, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” it should be noted that such attraction is taboo in their religion and that the four men profiled in TLC’s teaser clip on YouTube do not identify as gay. One of them is single and dating and the other three are married to heterosexual women.

In fact, the title of the special, which airs January 11, is a quote of sorts from their partner’s perspective: My Husband’s Not Gay.

ThinkProgress describes the concept as “if Say Yes to the Dress were about couples who aren’t sexually attracted to each other but go ahead and get married anyway, for religious reasons, and if the whole enterprise made you feel uncomfortable and vaguely sad.”

In the promo, one of the men reveals, “I’m attracted to my wife, for sure. And I’m definitely attracted to men too.”

Although the clip takes an irreverent view of the couples’ situation, there is an alarming stance on display — that the men’s same-sex attraction is something they can “overcome” through strength of faith and in their love for their wives. One man says, “There’s no marriage that is perfect. Ours isn’t, but with our faith in God, we believe we can overcome anything.”

As The New York Times reported in October, a high-ranking leader of the Mormon faith, known formally as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, reiterated the church’s opposition to same-sex marriage. However, Elder Dallin Oaks did urge his fellow Mormons to try to better understand those with different views and to be kind to them.

The Times noted this was was the third consecutive conference in which marriage was declared limited to a man and a woman. In April, Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the church’s second-highest governing body, said, “While many governments and well-meaning individuals have redefined marriage, the Lord has not.”

And these men appearing in My Husband’s Not Gay will hardly be the first Mormons to acknowledge same-sex attraction, even if they men never characterize themselves as gay. Therapist and self-described “devout Mormon” Josh Weed cowrote a blog post two years ago in which he declared “I, Josh Weed, am homosexual.” The cowriter was his wife, to whom he remains married.

Weed wrote in an addendum, “If you are Mormon and you choose to live your religion, you are sacrificing the ability to have a romantic relationship with a same-sex partner.” Another Mormon,John Dehlin, told ABC News that was a dangerous concept: “Using religion or spirituality as a way to manage your sexual orientation, by being extra righteous, or extra faithful, as a way to sort of suppress those feelings, or control yourself, is the most damaging way to cope with your same-sex attraction.”

The promo shows happy couples ice skating, playfully holding on to each other, smiling while sitting side by side. But perhaps most interesting in all this is how the women in the program see themselves. One says, “I get a little defensive when somebody calls my husband ‘gay.’”

Michael [pictured right in the photo with Mark here] noted that his simple breakfast photograph appeared satisfyingly symmetrical. He uploaded it to his personal Instagram account, and began to notice his number of followers quickly growing. He decided to launch a dedicated Instagram account, Symmetry Breakfast, in September of that year, posting a photo daily, and the numbers have since exploded.

The popularity of Symmetry Breakfast has no doubt been helped by the fact that Michael goes to great lengths to create imaginative breakfasts, taking inspiration from all over the world.

Whereas most of us will have the same meal morning after morning, Michael treats Mark to something different almost every day – as a selection of his photos below testify. And unsurprisingly, a growing number of local food producers and crockery makers have been keen for him to feature their produce.

Michael says he is ‘Completely surprised!’ by the reaction he has had to the photos.

‘At the beginning, the format and concept was a bit ropey but as it grew it has really morphed into something else. I never sat down and thought ‘I’ll do this and that’, its really evolved over time.

‘One of the most interesting outcomes of it is what other people assume about me or us as a couple. I am often referred to as a woman who must have OCD or be a dominatrix. I’ve also been asked several times in interviews if I find it psychologically soothing or am I intentionally trying to create a ‘twin effect’ – read into it what you will.’

Some of the photographs feature food from cafes and restaurants that they visit – including holidays this year to Italy and China – but the majority are dishes they enjoy at home. Does he find it a chore to always create visually arresting breakfasts?

‘It can feel like a chore sometimes, I don’t think of it as a hobby or something I am bound to. I do see it as something that I can develop into a potential new career.’

And does Michael do all the food preparation, or does Mark ever try his hand at preparing the meals?

‘Mark does occasionally make them but most of the time is it me. I have better working hours so I spend a lot more of my time cooking generally.’

And has he made anything that particularly impressed or proved unpopular?

‘Mark is from Holland so hadn’t tried some classic British breakfast dishes such as kedgeree or black pudding before I made them for him.

‘He’s not a fan of black pudding at all. Kedgeree he liked but I don’t think he would order it for himself in a restaurant!

‘We are not huge fans of breakfast cereals and we both find Lucky Charms absolutely disgusting. We had them once and I gave the remainder of the box to my neighbor.’

With Mark is now in negotiations to start designing his own line of tableware, expect to hear more about Symmetry Breakfast in 2015.

Thursday 25 December 2014: Happy Christmas from The Great Wall of China!! We’re having a picnic up here! Green tea cake, honey cake and baby satsumas with hot taro milk tea.

LGBT educators walk a fine line between keeping their jobs and being honest with their students.

Very early in his career teaching in New York, Glenn Bunger witnessed a student getting called “faggot” in between classes, but he hesitated to respond. As a gay teacher who hadn’t come out to his students or staff, he felt hamstrung.

“I worried: If I get involved, what will others think? Will they associate this with me? Is my reaction right now really about me? Or about the student? I was always processing these questions and insecurities that prevented me from speaking out.”

Bunger remained silent that day but later brought up the issue to his supervisor. It was clear from the conversation that the supervisor felt students like this didn’t need any sympathy but, rather, just some “toughening up,” Bunger said.

Bunger never came out to the school’s leadership or any of his students during his first two years teaching. Many other LGBT teachers in the United States have long struggled with this same decision of whether to make their sexual orientations public—and the “extra layer” of worries that comes with it. The country’s long history of discrimination towards LGBT teachers could help explain why so many of these educators are afraid to come out. In 1978, the state of California proposed a law—a ballot measure widely known as the Briggs Initiative—which would’ve prohibited openly gay and lesbian teachers from working in the state’s public schools. Years before that, a group of Florida legislators known as the “John’s Committee” prompted the firing of more than 100 LGBT teachers between 1957 and 1963. Though the committee officially folded in 1965, the Florida Department of Education continued to regularly purge LGBT teachers through the 1970s.

Currently, federal law protects people from workplace discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, religion, sex, age, and disability. But the law fails to specifically address sexual orientation. A recent executive order by President Barack Obama protects any federal employee or contractor—around 28 million workers, or one-fifth of the American workforce—from discrimination based on sexual orientation. However, it doesn’t cover teachers, who are subject to state and local laws.

About 20 states and the District of Columbia have taken matters into their own hands, developing laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, including California, Illinois, and Massachusetts. Curiously, the simultaneous push for legalizing same-sex marriage has left some states with ideologically conflicting laws. In five states—Indiana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Virginia—gay people can get legally married but also legally fired by an employer for being gay, a Washington Post map shows.

Without legal protection, the decision to be honest about sexual orientation can change an LGBT teacher’s entire career trajectory. NPR recentlyreported the story of a Catholic school teacher in Georgia who was fired after announcing on Facebook that he had gotten engaged to his longtime partner. His school responded in a statement, “We have to consider an employee’s ability to teach Catholic doctrine when making staff decisions.” But that wasn’t an isolated incident.Several other stories have surfaced in recent years with reports of LGBT teachers who were fired after their sexual orientation was exposed. In San Bernadino, California, for example, a lesbian teacher challenged her school district in court with help from the American Civil Liberties Union, alleging that she was fired after attempting to help the school’s Gay Straight Alliance chapter. Meanwhile, in Columbus, Ohio, another Catholic school teacher was fired after a newspaper obituary announcing her mother’s death listed her partner’s name among the survivors.

As a former teacher with Teach for America, I’m disturbed by these situations and the difficult decisions they force LGBT to make. I spoke with several colleagues I had met during my stint as a teacher to explore how they’ve contended with these challenging decisions, often knowing their careers are on the line. Many of them have opted to keep their sexual orientations secret if they suspect their jobs are at risk.

“In the years before I had tenure, there was no way I was going to let someone’s else’s homophobia jeopardize my career,” Bunger said. “My advice to any LGTBQ teacher would be the same: Stand and be counted, but only if it’s legally safe to do so.”

Even teachers in states with legal protection worry that homophobic school leaders can still find a way to fire them regardless. “There is always the fear that if you were to share this, it could color how staff and administration view your performance, skew their evaluations of you, or otherwise influence whether you stay hired or not,” said Jasmin Torres, who directs leadership development efforts for Teach for America in the Chicago area and oversees the office’s LGBT initiatives.

Unsurprisingly, teachers working in more conservative communities feel particularly anxious about exposing their sexual orientation.

“My students mostly come from Caribbean descent, where homosexuality is traditionally frowned upon,” said Lamar Shambley, a sixth-grade math teacher in New York who hasn’t come out to his students. “I wish that I could really open up to them and talk about my specific experiences … but if I tell them, they may tell their parents, and their parents may no longer want me to teach their child.”

Paranoia surrounding LGBT teachers in part traces back to unfounded theories linking homosexuality and pedophilia. Although the American Psychological Association and numerous other research organizations have concluded that homosexuality does not make someone more likely to sexually abuse children, Conservative organizations such the Family Research Council and the American College of Pediatricians—a group that requires its members to “hold true to the group’s core beliefs of the traditional family unit” before joining—argue that homosexuality is a threat to children.

That could help explain why LGBT teachers who are married or in committed relationships sometimes enjoy a level of legitimacy and acceptance that single gay teachers often fail to secure.

“I find that it’s easier to come out to students and families with a partner because people already have a sense of what a family structure is,” said Emily Taylor, who taught for two years at elementary schools around Brooklyn. “The more [homosexuality] can fit into the schema that people already have about families, the easier it is for others to understand … being gay and single and not relating to people’s notions of family is harder and somehow not as easy to trust.”

But even people with generally tolerant views toward homosexuality sometimes question the necessity of coming out, particularly in a school setting. Many wonder why conversations about sexual orientation are relevant to the classroom at all—and why such personal details can’t be kept private.

“I never really felt like I was hiding something, because when you teach kids, there’s a part of your life that’s personal and you don’t really share it with them,” Taylor said. “It’s not like they ever knew everything about me. This is just another thing about me that they don’t know.”

“Ten times a day, people share things about their private lives: ‘my husband is sick’, or ‘I have to pick up my kids,'” Bunger said. “But I couldn’t participate in these casual interactions when I was in the closet. Instead, LGBT teachers have to constantly play a pronoun game when you talk about your partner, and have to constantly be careful how you engage with people. Like many other people, I have a photo on my wall of my husband. I want to turn that into a normal conversation.”But many LGBT teachers argue that conversations about personal matters dohappen in classrooms all the time, that it’s only because society promotes heterosexuality—versus homosexuality—as normal that discussions related to a teacher’s sexual orientation are kept out of class discussions.

Torres, of Teach for America, agrees that for herself and her colleagues, being in the closet comes with an extra layer of work—and stress. “During my first few years teaching, I was lonely,” she said. “You are constantly thinking about what you’re saying, what you’re not saying, whether you’re giving anything away. You become hyper-aware of how people perceive you, and you worry that you’re not allowed to be your genuine self at work.”

Torres eventually came out during her third year teaching, after switching to a school that she found to be more progressive. Bunger also came out after earning tenure, inspired by a fellow gay teacher who never had any qualms about discussing his sexual orientation with his students.

“It was only after I saw how this man taught—with no apologies, no guilt—that I realized that I could do the same,” Bunger said. “If a kid ever used homophobic slurs, he’d open up the discussion. And even students who didn’t like it still respected him.”

Now, Bunger is honest when students ask about his orientation: “I don’t announce it, but I also don’t hide it. And any questions about it can happen after class.”

For other LGBT teachers, coming out to their students is far more deliberate—and even political. Jacob Lazar, an 11th-grade English teacher at Achievement First Brooklyn High School, has come out to his students every year for the past three years on National Coming Out Day in October.

“I look up a hate crime the night before from a newspaper,” he said. “I share it with my students and tell them, ‘This week, a man was assaulted because he was texting his boyfriend, or holding hands in public, or kissing at a party. And these crimes happen because of fear and ignorance, and I never want any of you to feel afraid or ignorant, so I’m going to share my story with you.'”

Lazar hopes that by coming out to his students, his classroom can be a safe environment for other students who want to do the same. The dismal statistics of LGBT youth make clear that these spaces are needed: A new Williams Institute studyof youth shelters found that nearly four out of every 10 homeless children identify as LGBT. “Family rejection” was cited by nearly half of these homeless LGBT youth as a reason for them running away. A 2009 survey of more than 7,000 LGBT middle and high school students found that in the past year, eight of 10 students had been verbally harassed at school because of their sexual orientation and one in five had been the victim of a physical assault. More than 60 percent reported feeling unsafe in their school environment and over 25 percent reported missing classes or days of school because of it. Overall, the stresses experienced by LGBT youth also put them at greater risk for mental health problems and substance use: A national studyfrom 2008 found that lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth are more than twice as likely to attempt suicide as their heterosexual peers.

“If we ever want to get to a place where people aren’t being killed for who they are, it’s important that students know people who are gay and are learning that difference isn’t inherently threatening,” Lazar said. As an English teacher, Lazar’s first unit focuses on American literature through the lens of marginalized communities, including LGBT authors. “The bigotry people experience on a daily basis happens because certain voices are not being heard. Teaching like this and being out as a teacher exposes my students to a voice that they might not hear otherwise.”

In 2010, Bunger began teaching at a high school with many open LGBT students. During his time there, Bunger remembered conservative church groups picketing outside the school with signs that said “Faggots” in large, bold lettering. Through that experience, Bunger realized even more clearly the need for students to have LGBT teachers as positive role models in the classroom.

“Kids and teachers need to know that someone they know is gay, that it’s not a hypothetical, that this is about real people who they know,” Bunger said “Being visible to these kinds of kids—kids who make dangerous decisions because they’re afraid to talk—is crucial.”

Lazar believes that hiding sexuality can also hinder the academic discussions in his classroom: “As a literature teacher, sexuality is a really powerful symbol. It shows up in a lot of classics, with authors like Shakespeare, or James Baldwin, or Walt Whitman. You can’t get into texts in depth without talking about it in some way. Their sexuality is a big part of what they’re writing,” Lazar said. “Because I don’t have to worry about ‘giving myself away to my students’ I can focus on the teaching and making sure my students go to college prepared to talk about sexuality in a mature, academic way.'”

Many teachers agree that coming out to students can actually help them manage a classroom better instead of creating an extra distraction.

“I used to think that my personal life would be a weakness, or would get in the way of education,” Bunger said. “But now I think I lose more authority by not being real.”

Since Bunger began coming out to his students, bullying and homophobic remarks in his classroom have stopped. Now working in South Africa where he helps train fellow teachers, he has a picture of his longtime husband posted above his desk.

“Every day you make 100 different choices,” he said. “Telling the truth shouldn’t have to be one of them.”

“There are many religious and community leaders, activists and LGBT Iowans working for justice and equality,” Rick Miller Des Moines writes, “but none does it better than Rebecca Gruber. Please consider giving a rose to Gruber for her tireless work to promote understanding and harmony through her work with the Des Moines Gay Men’s Chorus. Her gentle coaxing, heartfelt repertoire and exemplary showmanship have promoted sexual orientation understanding in a non-threatening way. She has taught the world — including those outside Iowa — that gender issues and diversity are to be embraced and not shunned. Gruber brings warmth and grace to the issues of sexual minorities with dignity and intellectual integrity through music. Her dedication to full inclusion is admirable and laudable, especially from an individual who is not a member of the LGBT community. Although Gruber receives roses after her concerts, it would be fantastic to see her honored with a single rose from The Des Moines Register. Her genuine work for peace, hope, equality and justice deserve no less.”

Magnotta was also found guilty of committing an indignity to a human body, publishing and mailing obscene material, and criminally harassing Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other members of Parliament.

The prosecution had argued that Magnotta was “a man on a mission” and had carefully planned the killing.

The verdict came on the eighth day of jury deliberations.

The jury was shown a video of the killing that Magnotta had posted online. It included a soundtrack and was entitled One Lunatic, One Ice Pick.

The prosecution said that six months before the killing, Magnotta had emailed a British journalist to say he planned to kill a human and make a movie of it.

The jury heard that Magnotta, a gay escort, had been hospitalised in 2001, and had sought psychiatric help about a month before Lin’s death. Magnotta’s father, who testified at the trial, also has a medical history of schizophrenia.

The case gripped Canada in the spring of 2012 after body parts were found in the trash behind a Montreal apartment building and in packages mailed to political parties in Ottawa and to schools in Vancouver. The boxes contained hands and feet wrapped in pink tissue paper as well as notes and poems.

The victim’s father, Diran Lin, traveled from China to attend the trial.

Looking back at 2014, the year has been peppered with legal victories, cultural triumphs, and political successes for the LGBT community. More than half of the country has now legalized gay marriage, and a Supreme Court ruling on the issue is nearly inevitable.

“It’s been an incredible year for LGBT equality,” said Seth Adam, director of communications at GLAAD.

The Sochi Olympics brought “unprecedented attention” to LGBT issues abroad, said Adam, and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (a Republican, no less) vetoed an antigay bill that would have allowed businesses to invoke religious freedom as a reason to discriminate against gay customers.

LGBT Americans are even getting better treatment in the digital world this year, as Facebook changed its traditional male-female gender options to include dozens of additional identifiers, from “transgender” to “gender-fluid” and “intersex.”

Although there were countless landmark moments for gay rights in 2014, here are the top five.

1. The Kiss Heard Around the World

Not only was Michael Sam the first openly gay football player to be drafted to the NFL, he then set off a media storm when he kissed his boyfriend, live, on national television, after hearing he was headed to the St. Louis Rams. This one kiss sparked weeks of coverage, commentary, and debate over Sam’s qualifications as a player and the role his sexual orientation would play in his career. The drama hasn’t seemed to faze Sam, who planted one on his man again publicly this month at a ceremony where he was named GQ Man of the Year.

Sam is now a free agent (he didn’t make the final Rams cut), but that hasn’t stopped the Oprah Winfrey Network from shooting a documentary about him and his role in sports history; it’s slated to air later this month. And Sam was not the only high-profile athlete to come out this year. In April, University of Massachusetts guard Derrick Gordon became the first Division One men’s college basketball player to come out as gay.

In addition to expanding the visibility of LGBT people in sports, these men have helped dispel old stereotypes of what it means to be an athlete.

“They’re really recasting what it means and what it looks like to be LGBT,” said Adam. “It sends a message to young people that being LGBT people is no longer a barrier to fulfilling your dreams.”

2. Transgender Rights Take Center Stage

Orange Is the New Black sustained its reputation as a Netflix sensation and brought a new look at LGBT relationships to the masses—in part because the show put transgender actress Laverne Cox on the map. Although Cox dabbled in television before Orange, the hit series with 12 Emmy nominations in 2014 alone has made Cox the face of transgender rights in America and a media darling to boot.

Cox has done countless interviews and speaking engagements, and she became the first transgender woman to be nominated for an Emmy in an acting category. Glamour magazine amed her woman of the year in 2014, and her omnipresent cultural importance was crowned with an appearance on the cover of Time. Cox was the first openly transgender person to secure that spot.

“Just the visibility that she has brought to the trans movement in this year alone is incredible,” said Adam.

Cox has also joined a campaign to fight a prostitution law in Arizona that unfairly targets transgender women by allowing police to arrest anyone who “appears” to be soliciting sex. In addition to her direct actions, Cox seems to have ushered in a tide of transgender awareness, marked by decisions such as that of women’s college Mills College to openly accept transgender students.

3. Majority of States Allow Gay Marriage

This year America saw a swell in momentum for marriage equality as an onslaught of courtroom victories brought the grand total of states with legalized gay marriage to 35, plus the District of Columbia.

On one day in October, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for gay marriage in five states (Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin) by deciding not to hear appeals in these states’ gay marriage cases.

This year also saw a different type of landmark decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which actually upheld the ban on gay marriage in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. Although the decision itself is discouraging and the first time a same-sex marriage ban has made it past a federal circuit court, LGBT advocates are hopeful it will end in a Supreme Court review. The decision created “a circuit court split,” which increases the probability that the Supreme Court will address the issue and make a national ruling, experts say.

4. Boy Scouts Welcome Gay Youth

On Jan. 1 of this year, a new policy for the Boy Scouts of America took effect allowing openly gay youth to become members. The measure was approved by 60 percent of the 1,400 leaders who voted on it, deciding no boy would be denied membership “on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.”

The Human Rights Campaign called the decision a “historic step forward,” and GLAAD said it was a “significant victory for gay youth across the nation.” The decision came last year after extensive debate between scout leaders and religious zealots, gay rights advocates, and parents.

“While people have different opinions about this policy, we can all agree that kids are better off when they are in Scouting,” said the Boy Scouts of America in a statement after the vote.

But approving gay youth membership is only one step forward for the Boy Scouts, which still bans gay leaders and adults from the organization. Taking down this antigay policy is next on the agenda for many pro-LGBT interests, including the Walt Disney Company, whichthreatened to pull all funding from the Boy Scouts in 2015 if it didn’t reverse its ban on gay leaders.

5. HIV Drug Goes Mainstream

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began recommending HIV drug PrEP as a “prevention option” for people “who are at high risk of getting HIV.” Risk factors include having an ongoing sexual relationship with an HIV-positive partner or being a gay or bisexual man and having unprotected sex with multiple partners where the person’s HIV status is not known.

If taken correctly and consistently, PrEP has been shown to lower the chances of getting HIV by up to 92 percent, according to certain studies.

“PrEP is a dose of hope, taken once daily,” said Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin in a statement this year. “Today, there is an unprecedented chance to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States, in part through PrEP’s aggressive prevention of new HIV infections.”

PrEP is currently being produced under the brand name Truvada, and HRC, along with other LGBT advocates, is pushing for insurers and drug manufacturers to work on lowering the cost and making it more accessible to those who it could help. Not only is this a groundbreaking drug that could save a lot of lives, but it has also opened up a crucial dialogue.

“We’ve started talking about HIV and AIDS in our community in a way we haven’t in a long time,” said Adam.

Hailed as a landmark victory for LGBTs in China, gay rights activists say they hope the court’s decision will help put an end to the practice of ‘gay conversion’ therapy in the country – See more at:

In the first case of its kind in China, Beijing’s Haidian District People’s Court last Friday ruled that the Xinyupiaoxiang Counseling Center in Chongqing had no medical basis to offer a cure for homosexuality.

It ordered the clinic to pay 3,500 yuan (US$560) to Yang Teng who took the case to court after he underwent hypnosis and electric shock treatment after being told by the clinic that it was a safe and effective cure for homosexuality.

The court has ordered the clinic to post an apology for offering the treatment on the front page of its website for 48 hours and has ordered an investigation to find out if the clinic holds a valid licence.

Although China stopped classifying homosexuality as a mental illness in 2001, a number of clinics across the country purport to offer tratments to ‘cure’ homosexuality.

Yang said in a video interview, ‘This is very important for China’s homosexuals. It is the first time that government officials, on the basis of the law, adopt a just statement on gay equality. We can take this result and tell people, including all the parents in China, and all doctors engaging in “gay conversion” treatment, that “gay conversion” is illegal.’

He filed the legal challenge with assistance from the Beijing LGBT Centre, a non-profit NGO, which has been protesting conversion therapy for years.

Like many other gay people in China, Yang said he faced pressure from family members to get married and have children; and was urged by his family to go to the clinic to be treated for his homosexuality.

DW:Do you think a recommendation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to replace the lifetime ban on blood donations from gay men with a policy barring men who have had sex with men within 12 months is a significant policy shift?

Ivan Scalfarotto: Let’s be very clear: what is at risk is not people, but behaviors. There are behaviors which are clearly risky, but I think all restrictions that have to do with people, and not behavior, are unreasonable. The risk is the exchange of bodily fluids. This can happen between men and women, men and men, and even women and women. So, the only reasonable ban you can impose on blood donation has to do with risky behavior and that has nothing to do with the sexual orientation of the donor.

Three decades on, the spread of HIV is still closely associated with the gay community. Do you think the move by the US could set a precedent for other nations, including Germany, France and Italy, to review restrictions on blood donations from gay men?

Suggesting that sex between two men is, per se, riskier than sex between a man and a woman is unreasonable and still imposes a stigma on gay people. Frankly speaking, it does not touch on the issue that the only discrimination one should consider, the only difference, and the only ban that should be imposed, is on behaviors. Those issues to do with considering some people at more risk than others are irrational – for example, thinking that a celibate gay man is in a riskier position than a sexually active straight person just because of their gay status. This is not reasonable. I think the scientific community is quite clear on this, and I think there is more of a political issue behind the idea that excluding a certain section of the community removes the risk. In recent years, the gay community has done a lot of work in terms of sexual health education, while this did not appear to happen in the heterosexual community, so to speak.

We know the rate of HIV infection between straight people has been on the increase, so I think once again, this does not help because it makes straight people believe they are safe, which is not the case. So, everyone should have protected sex whatever orientation they have. This is the right message to convey.

What are the risks of lifting bans on gay men donating blood, regardless of which country has imposed the restriction?

What you should find on official forms when you are about to donate blood are questions about your behaviors. So, I think there would be no risk at all in just asking people the right questions. What we are interested in regarding blood donation, is if the person who is about to donate went through risky behavior, and was potentially exposed to the virus in the last month.

A US proposal to lift a lifetime ban on gay blood donation still includes certain restrictions. Italy’s Under Secretary of State for Constitutional Reforms, Ivan Scalfarotto, spoke to DW about the implications.

This is all about asking everyone who wants to donate blood whether they recently had unprotected sex. It is up to the health officials to do this. The question should never be, “Are you gay?” The question should be, “Have you had unprotected sex in recent months?” We do not want to know who people are, we want to know what people did. There should be no other question than this.

Ivan Scalfarotto is the Italian Under Secretary of State for Constitutional Reforms and Government Liaison to Parliament. Between 2009 and 2013 he was the Deputy Chairperson of the Italian Democratic Party.

In Cleveland, two middle-aged men got into a sword fight after one called the other “gay.”

Earlier this week, a 48-year-old nicknamed “Cowboy” was watching a Cavaliers game on TV with his 44-year-old friend, who was accused of being gay. This all went down in Cowboy’s apartment, according to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer.

In typical fashion, the 44-year-old returned the accusation with a textbook “no, you’re gay.” And that’s when shit got stupid.

Cowboy and his friend started throwing punches and wrestling into the kitchen. Eventually the fight was taken outside where Cowboy brought a two-food sword and struck the other man in the head once and in the left arm twice.

The cops were called by this point, and Cowboy dropped his sword and ran off.

A police unit arrived to the scene and could not find Cowboy. A report was filed, though no charges are being pressed by the 44-year-old. And we still don’t know who is gay.

Michael Sam, the first openly gay man to play in an NFL game, told Oprah Winfrey that there are “a lot” of gay men in the NFL, some of whom have reached out to him.

“A very few reached out to me,” Sam said in an interview set to air on Saturday. “[They] told me their gratitude and how they were thankful that I have the courage … They wish they had the courage to come out.”

Sam, who was cut from the St. Louis Rams after the preseason, signed with the Dallas Cowboys practice squad, but was waived in October and is currently a free agent.

“There’s a lot of us out there,” Sam continued. “I’m not the only one. I’m just the only one who’s open.”

ORLANDO – Most of Florida’s 67 clerks of court don’t plan to issue marriage licenses to gay couples on Jan. 6, paralyzed by confusion over whether a ban on same-sex marriage is being lifted across the whole state that day, according to an Associated Press survey.

The overwhelmingly majority of clerks who responded to AP’s inquiry this week said they wouldn’t offer marriage licenses to same-sex couples without further clarification from a federal judge on whether his ruling applies beyond Washington County. A lawsuit filed in the remote Panhandle county by two men seeking to be married became a key basis for U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle’s decision ruling the state’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional.

The association representing Florida’s clerks has issued an opinion that the ruling doesn’t apply to other counties, and said clerks can be prosecuted for violating the law if they issue same-sex marriage licenses. Most Florida’s clerks are following that advice.

“I’m not going to break the law,” said Paula O’Neill, the clerk for Pasco County, in the St. Petersburg area. “I’m not going to issue licenses until it’s legal.”

Of the 53 clerks who responded to the AP survey, 46 said they wouldn’t grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples because they lack legal authority. Six clerks said they hadn’t made up their minds; Only one clerk outside Washington County, Osceola County’s Armando Ramirez, said he would issue the licenses.

Ramirez said his office would begin issuing marriage permits for same-sex couples a minute after midnight on Jan. 6. He said it’s a matter of not discriminating against a minority group.

“We won’t waste any time,” he said.

Gay rights groups are disputing the clerk association’s interpretation of Hinkle’s ruling, and they’re threatening legal action if licenses for same-sex couples aren’t issued across the state. On Wednesday, they sent out a memo to Florida’s 67 clerks of courts stating the clerks are required to stop enforcing Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage in two weeks.

“We are prepared to fight,” said Sharon Kersten, a public relations consultant for Equality Florida, the gay rights group.

Some clerks said they’re hoping for clarification from a court. Dwight Brock, clerk of Collier County in southwest Florida, said it would be “disastrous” if counties didn’t act in a uniform manner. He hasn’t decided what to do given the conflicting opinions.

“It is as clear as mud,” Brock said.

The judge may offer some clarity. Washington County’s clerk on Tuesday asked Hinkle if his ruling applied only to the couple in the lawsuit or to any same-sex couple seeking a marriage license from the county. On Wednesday, Hinkle asked two state agencies, to offer their positions by next Monday.

Several clerks who don’t plan to issue the licenses until they get further clarification said they’re conflicted, since they support gay rights.

“I’ve been with the gay community on the issue of equality, forever. I want to see this resolved,” said Pat Frank, clerk for Hillsborough County. “The only thing that concerns me are the penalties that might affect my office. It’s a first-degree misdemeanor if the State Attorney decides to prosecute me.”

At least one Florida prosecutor, State Attorney Jeff Ashton in Orlando, has said he wouldn’t prosecute any clerks for issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. His jurisdiction covers Orange and Osceola counties.

Some clerks are considering sending same-sex couples to county judges, who are also allowed to issue marriage licenses under Florida law. County judges can waive some marriage-license requirements, such as the three-day waiting period or the restriction on a minor getting married.

“Maybe, if nothing changes, we would treat it like these other cases, and send it to a county judge,” said Ken Burke, clerk of Pinellas County.

(Reuters) – U.S. health regulators will recommend that gay men be allowed to donate blood one year after their last sexual contact, easing a ban that has been in place since 1983.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that scientific evidence shows the move will not create risks for the nation’s blood supply. It stopped short of removing the ban altogether, which some medical groups and advocates had recommended, saying it was not supported by science.

The policy change is expected to boost the supply of donated blood by hundreds of thousands of pints per year.

Blood donations from gay men have been barred since the discovery that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was being transmitted through transfusions.

“The FDA has carefully examined and considered the available scientific evidence relevant to its blood donor deferral policy for men who have sex with men, including the results of several recently completed scientific studies and recent epidemiologic data,” FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in a statement.

The FDA said the move aligns the policy for gay men with that for other men and women who are at increased risk for HIV infection.

John Peller, President and Chief Executive Officer of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, said that the new policy still holds heterosexual individuals and gay men to different standards.

“We think that it’s a step in the right direction but it certainly doesn’t go far enough,” Peller said. “If the goal is to protect the blood supply while also increasing the pool of eligible donors we think that the FDA could go further and we encourage them to continue to review their policy.”

Some infectious disease experts agreed that the one-year delay instituted under the relaxed standards was still overly stringent given the scientific evidence.

“Having gay men be abstinent for a year before they can donate is not based on any science. It does not take a year after contact to develop HIV,” Judith Aberg, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai said. “The new HIV tests can detect acute HIV in weeks.”

But Peter Marks, deputy director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said it was not possible to maintain the blood supply safety with a deferral of less than a year.

“At this time we simply do not have the scientific evidence to show that you can go to a shorter period,” Marks said during a press briefing.

The FDA said it will issue draft guidance on the policy, hopefully early in 2015. It would then review the comments and issue final guidance.

An FDA advisory committee met this month and discussed the effectiveness of new blood supply tests for HIV infections. In November, an advisory committee to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommended a one-year deferral.

The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law at the University of California, Los Angeles said in September in a study that eliminating the ban would bring in 615,300 pints of blood annually. Instituting a one-year deferral period would bring in 317,000 pints, the study found.

Achallenge to President Obama’s health care law will dominate the US Supreme Court’s term that resumes in 2015.

But it could be overshadowed by the question of same-sex marriage if the justices decide to take up that hot-button issue — and act in time.

A 5-4 ruling by the court in 2012 saved Obamacare from a constitutional challenge to the law’s broad reach. Now it faces another critical test, this time involving the meaning of the actual words in the law.

The statute clearly provides that people who buy insurance policies through state exchanges qualify for a federal subsidy. But it is ambiguous about whether the subsidy is also available for policies bought on the federal exchanges.

The Supreme Court agreed in November to decide what the law actually means.

“The stakes are huge, because without the subsidy, the law would collapse. It’s critical to making everything else work,” says Tom Goldstein, a Washington DC lawyer who argues frequently before the court.

Only 16 states now have their own health exchanges up and running.

Nearly 5.5 million low-income Americans in the other 34 states get their insurance on the federal exchange. The average premium is about $80 dollars a month but would be $345 without the subsidy.

The Obama administration argues that when the entire law is read as a whole, it provides for subsidies through both exchanges. But opponents of Obamacare say it’s the specific wording of the subsidy provision that counts.

“It doesn’t matter what the sponsors were hoping for in their hearts. What matters is the black and white in the law, and it clearly limits subsidies to the state exchanges,” says Washington, DC lawyer Michael Carvin, representing the challengers.

The case represents a second front of attack on the health care law, now that Republicans in Congress are vowing to try to repeal it with their new majorities.

Challenges to state bans on same-sex marriage are back before the Supreme Court, even though the justices declined to take up the issue just three months ago.

Back then, the federal appeals courts that had ruled on the question agreed that laws banning marriage for gay couples were unconstitutional. Apparently because the lower courts were in accord, the Supreme Court brushed aside cases from Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

But after that court acted, a panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati voted to uphold state bans in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. That created a split in the appeals courts, greatly raising the odds the Supreme Court will take up the issue.

Lawyers on both sides in those states have acted unusually quickly to get the case to the court in time for the justices to consider the issue in their private conferences in January.

“The US Supreme Court will have the final word on this issue. The sooner they rule, the better, for Michigan and the country,” said Bill Schuette, Michigan’s attorney general.

“The Sixth Circuit ruling highlights the need for the Supreme Court to step in and rule on the people’s right to marry, regardless of the state they live in,” said Steve Shapiro, Legal Director of the ACLU.

If the court chooses to take up the issue, and does so before the end of January, the case could be heard before this term ends in June. The four cases from the Sixth Circuit are scheduled to be discussed at the justices’ first private conference after the holiday break on January 9.

I was raised as a devout Evangelical Christian. My readers know I discarded that identity as an adult and don’t mince words whenever the subject of religion arises. But what many probably don’t realize is that religion continues to impact my life in profound ways. Sociologists say that even American atheists are often “cultural Christians,” as the roots of our identities come from the experiences of both our pasts and current surroundings. And most U.S. citizens were raised in and around Christianity.

Evangelical Christianity, which, like all religious systems, has a host of well-documented problems. But I won’t be discussing those here, as it’s something I do often. This is about the way communities shape our identities, and how good can be drawn even from the experiences of identities we later reject.

These five concepts exist in many other forms around the world, but I discovered them through being a Christian. After a few years outside the isolation of an Evangelical community, these are values I find most lacking in the mainstream and would pass on to others who are still building their own identities.

Intimacy is not just for romantic partners. Those who have spent a lot of time around Evangelicals will notice that they tend to have uniquely personal relationships with each other. Platonic male friendships are the most noticeable, as they veer outside the emotional boundaries of masculinity in mainstream culture. They’re often physically affectionate, talk openly about subjects that make most people feel vulnerable and routinely say “I love you.”

Caring for the needs of others leads to a happier life. When someone was without food, clothing, shelter or other necessities, the church would step in to help. And by “the church,” I mean the people within it would often individually offer their assistance. Caring for others wasn’t just a duty, it was viewed as a privilege. Through that service, people formed bonds that remained throughout their lifetimes and, as a bonus, ensured that goodwill existed for themselves if they fell onto hard times.

Using polite language averts hostility. This easy lifestyle choice is a valuable one for both professional and private interaction. Cursing and overt disrespect almost never lead to a better result, because displays of anger show a lack of self-control and stability while putting the other person on the defense. People have trust for individuals whose behavior isn’t abusive, even when having a disagreement.

Music is an essential component of community. Evangelicals sing all the time. And despite what “Footloose” would have you believe, Christian usually love to dance. Music forms a huge part of religious identity. The worship songs of Christianity are often based on communal joy and celebration. Uplifting music is a reliable tool for easing social tension and bringing diverse groups of people together in a dynamic way.

Loving others is our primary responsibility. Evangelical Christians believe that love is greater than even faith, which is written by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians. While one can turn on the news and see Christian leaders ignoring this value, it doesn’t change the fact that the concept imprinted itself on my life. As a lifestyle vegan, civil rights advocate and progressive political commentator, love remains the guiding force in the derivation of my values.

Will I be returning to Evangelical Christianity? Nope. But that doesn’t mean I can’t use the best parts of my past to inform the choices I make as I step into the future.

One difference between 2001 and now is the existence of social media. Whereas the Queen Boat victims had few public defenders in Egypt, there have been Arab and Egyptian voices openly condemning last weekend’s arrests, though they are undoubtedly still a small minority.

Much of the wrath has been directed against TV presenter Mona Iraqi and her sordid efforts to expose a “den of perversion”. After initially boasting about her achievement on Facebook, Iraqi has now backtracked, claiming she was merely trying to promote sexual health in connection with World Aids Day.

Raiding bath houses does not, of course, stop people having sex, and there are more effective ways to reduce the spread of HIV – such as sex education of the sort people usually lack in Egypt – but they don’t necessarily make for sensational TV.

During the Mubarak regime’s 2001 crackdown, HRW gathered information about 179 men whose cases were brought before prosecutors. In all probability that was only a minuscule percentage of the true total. Hundreds of others were harassed, arrested and often tortured, but not charged.

In the absence of a specific law against gay sex, people are usually charged with “debauchery” under an old law originally intended to combat prostitution. A law against “immoral advertising” has also been used to entrap men seeking gay partners on the internet.

The most publicised of the Mubarak-era cases was the show trial of 52 men following a police raid on the Queen Boat, a floating nightclub on the Nile that was popular with gay men. The trial was accompanied by lurid tales in the Egyptian press alleging everything from prostitution to a gay wedding via devil worship.

Egypt’s prosecutor general, Maher Abdel-Wahid, accused the defendants of “exploiting Islam through false interpretation of verses from the Muslim holy book, the Qur–an, in order to propagate extremist ideas”. They were also charged with “performing immoral acts; the use of perverted sexual practices as part of their rituals; contempt and despite of heavenly religions, and fomenting strife”.

To highlight the supposed danger to the nation, the case was sent to the state security court, specially set up under an emergency law established in 1981 to deal with suspected terrorists. A Cairo newspaper reinforced this view with its front page headline: “Perverts declare war on Egypt”.

The exact reasons for the 2001 crackdown are still debated, and probably several factors were involved. Writing about this at the time, Hossam Bahgat saw it as an attempt by the Mubarak regime to undercut Islamist opposition by portraying the state as the guardian of public virtue: “To counter this ascending [Islamist] power, the state resorts to sensational prosecutions, in which the regime steps in to protect Islam from evil apostates. The regime seems to have realised that suppression and persecution of Islamists will not uproot the Islamist threat unless it is combined with actions that bolster the state’s religious legitimacy.”

He also noted the regime’s practice of using sensational trials to divert public attention from the worsening state of the economy and similar issues. The Queen Boat case was one of three big sex stories that helped to squeeze bad news out of the papers around the same time. One involved a businessman said to have married 17 women, and another was the leaking (possibly by state security) of a video that showed a former Coptic priest having sex with women who visited his monastery in search of healing.

It seems very likely that the crackdown under President al-Sisi is occurring for similar reasons: to distract attention from bigger issues, to show that while suppressing the Muslim Brotherhood the regime is still capable of playing the “morality” card, or a combination of both.

Mayor Park Won-soon and LGBT activists in South Korea have reached an agreement after the mayor previously caved to religious groups who decried LGBT inclusion in a human rights charter.

Mayor Park Won-soon of Seoul has issued an apology for indefinitely delaying a human rights charter that would have protected lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender South Koreans from discrimination in the municipality’s greater region,reports Pink News.

Park’s apology comes afteractivists staged sit-ins at Seoul City Hall one week ago. The demonstrators sought to protest the city government’s decision to delay adopting an LGBT-inclusive municipal human rights charter, allegedly caving to pressure from Protestant church groups.

“It is my responsibility and fault,” Park said in a written statement. “I am sorry for the emotional pain that you have suffered and will make whatever statements that you demand.”

The mayor said he understood that his decision to delay the charter because of its inclusion of language aimed at ensuring equality and nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people had caused harm.

“This is an occasion for me to offer comfort for the emotional pain that you have suffered and to apologize to you,” Park’s statement read. The mayor went on to assure that protection against discrimination would be provided.

“Regardless of any misunderstanding or statement, no citizen will be subjected to discrimination or disadvantage,” the mayor’s statement said.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government’s waylaid human rights charter, originally planned for enactment on December 10, World Human Rights Day, would have had the power of law to prohibit discrimination.

Although he gave no specifics about what the government would do going forward to protect Seoul’s LGBT residents from the anti-LGBT sentiments that likely underpinned the objections to the charter in the first place, Mayor Park said “practical ways of resolving the difficulties” would be found.

The mayor did discuss the creation of an advisory panel, made up of some of the same people who protested at City Hall, tasked with finding ways improve the lives of LGBT people in the Seoul Capital Area, where almost 26 million people (nearly half of South Korea’s entire population) live.

“The protesters concluded that the promise made by the mayor during the private conversation was important,” said a statement issued by the group Rainbow Action. “Through a meeting with Innovation Officer Jun Hyo-gwan held in the morning of December 11, the protesters confirmed the metropolitan government’s will to implement plans for the creation of a collaborative panel consisting of the relevant organizations to eradicate discrimination in city governance. They therefore decided to conclude the sit-in.”

Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith struggled for years to get their bookStranger published because the main character has superpowers – and is gay. Here they tell us why they were determined not to change the sexual orientation of their main character

In the world of Las Anclas – Los Angeles in the far future – some people have mutant powers, squirrels can teleport sandwiches out of people’s hands, and deadly crystal trees take their bright colours from the clothes of the people they killed.

This is the setting for our new book, Stranger. It’s a world full of danger and beauty, where there’s sometimes bias against the mutated “changed” folk, but other types of prejudice have completely died out. Nobody cares what race you are, what your gender is, or what your religion is, any more than they care if you’re a boy who prefers to date boys, or a girl who falls in love with other girls.

One of the main characters is Yuki Nakamura. He was once the crown prince of a floating city, but that was years before the story begins. The sole survivor of his family, his promised kingdom forever gone, he’s now just another teenager in the desert town of Las Anclas. Yuki rides on patrols to protect the town, takes care of his pet mutant rat, and dreams of the day when he can leave his tiny world behind and become an explorer. But how can Yuki leave Las Anclas, if it also means leaving the boy he loves?

Yes. Yuki is gay. In Stranger, the only person that matters to is Paco, his boyfriend.

But in our world, that matters to a lot of people.

It matters to the gay readers who might have never before read about someone like them in a book that isn’t about coming out or facing homophobia, but about fighting giant rattlesnakes and exploring strange landscapes. In our book, gay readers will see characters like them depicted as heroes. Who happen to be gay.

It matters to the straight readers who might have never met anyone who’s openly gay, and so may read this book and realise that there’s nothing wrong or weird about it. Some boys like boys, and some boys like girls, and some like boys and girls. It doesn’t hurt anyone else.

To sell a book to publishers, you need an agent to represent it. When we tried to find an agent for Stranger, we ran into problems. An agent finally offered to represent us… on the condition that we either make Yuki straight, or take away his point of view and all mentions of his sexual orientation. We refused. To make Yuki straight would have been to destroy our reason for writing the book in the first place.

We knew gay teenagers who said, “Every book about being gay is about coming out or hate crimes. I want to read about gay superheroes and gay ninjas!” We knew black teenagers who said, “Whenever I see a book with a black girl on the cover, it turns out to be about teen pregnancy or being pressured to join a gang. I don’t relate to that. I like fantasy and adventure stories, but why are the heroes always white?”

The serious, realistic books about social problems and prejudices are important and necessary. But they shouldn’t be the only reading options that depict main characters who are of colour, gay, lesbian, or disabled. We wrote Stranger so that the teenagers who so often get left out of the fun books could have a book where they’re the heroes.

It isn’t that agents and editors are all prejudiced, but they seemed to believe that the world won’t buy books unless the main characters are white and straight. The outcry about a “straightwash” afterwards prompted fantasy writer Malinda Lo to analyse all YA novels published in the US. She found that fewer than 1% of them have any LGBTQ characters at all, even minor supporting characters. A slightly larger number have heroes (as opposed to sidekicks and supporting characters) who are anything other than white, straight, and able-bodied.

Three years later, some things have changed, and some have not. We found a publisher for Stranger. Yuki is still gay, and so is his boyfriend Paco. Brisa, whose mutant power is to make rocks explode, is still a lesbian, and so is her shy girlfriend Becky.

We hope that Stranger will become just one of many more books that are both inclusive and fun. All of you should have a chance to read about heroes like you.

A single conversation with a gay or lesbian door-to-door canvasser had the ability to change attitudes on same-sex marriage in neighborhoods that overwhelmingly opposed such unions, according to new research.

In a study conducted in Los Angeles County and published Thursday in the journal Science, researchers found that when openly gay canvassers lobbied a household resident about same-sex marriage, the resident was more likely to form a lasting and favorable opinion of gay marriage than if the canvasser was heterosexual.

A previous version of this story said that people who were canvassed about same-sex marriage saw an 8% increase in favorable opinions about it immediately after; the increase was 8 percentage points above the baseline level of 39%. The story also used to say that one year after being lobbied, support was 14% higher than baseline among people who were canvassed by a gay person and 3% higher among those who were canvassed by a straight person; the actual increases were 14 and 3 percentage points.

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The doorstep conversations also had a measurable “spillover effect,” in which some household residents who did not speak with the gay canvasser also formed a positive opinion of gay marriage, researchers said.

The experiment was modeled after public outreach campaigns conducted by the Los Angeles LGBT Center in voting precincts that overwhelmingly supported Proposition 8, the 2008 state ballot measure that repealed same-sex marriage.

The finding is unusual in that many previous studies have found that active canvassing or political advertising do little to alter firmly held opinions. In fact, researchers were so skeptical of their results the first time that they re-ran the experiment and duplicated their initial results.

“I was totally surprised that it worked at all,” said lead author Michael LaCour, a UCLA doctoral candidate in political science.

“A lot of time we find in social science that most things don’t work, they don’t change people’s minds. But we found that a single conversation was able to change voters’ minds up to a year later.”

LaCour conducted the study with Donald Green, a political science professor at Columbia University.

In all, 9,507 voters were involved in the experiment. Of the 41 canvassers, 22 were gay and 19 were straight.

Residents were randomly assigned to one of three different groups: a treatment group, in which they were lobbied on same-sex marriage; a placebo group, in which recycling was discussed instead of gay marriage; and a control group where nobody was canvassed.

The face-to-face meetings lasted roughly 20 minutes, according to researchers. Gay marriage canvassers would follow a specific script in which they asked residents to name the benefits of marriage. If the canvasser was gay, they would then inform the resident and say they wanted to experience the same benefits. Straight canvassers, on the other hand, said they were hoping that a close relative who was gay could enjoy the benefits of marriage.

Researchers said that immediately after the canvassing experiment, follow-up surveys showed an 8 percentage point increase in favorable opinions of same-sex marriage among people who were canvassed on the topic — up from an initial acceptance rate of 39%.

The researchers followed up a year later to find out whether the positive opinions had gained ground or diminished.

LaCour said that in cases where the canvasser was gay, support for same-sex marriage had increased a total of 14 percentage points. In comparison, the support for same sex marriage among the people who were canvassed on the topic by a straight person had increased just 3 percentage points.

The researchers also noted that some of the residents’ housemates also expressed favorable opinions even though they had not spoken with the canvasser. Researchers said this suggested a spillover effect, in which they were influenced by second-hand exposure to the lobbying visit.

“It’s interesting that the effects had the same initial impact whether it’s a gay or straight person, but that the effect is lasting when it’s a gay person,” LaCour said. “You forget the message but you remember the messenger.”

The field experiment was conducted in 2013, during the month leading up to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that effectively overturned Proposition 8.

LaCour said that there was no difference in effect when researchers accounted for race or gender. However he said there was a slightly more positive effect when a gay canvasser was initially perceived as being straight.

“There seems to be something powerful about a counter-stereotypical person advocating,” LaCour said.

The Holy Bible, normally so strong on detail (so that for example we know from Genesis that the deck area of Noah’s Ark was equivalent to 36 tennis courts) is strangely silent about the names of the camels on which the Three Wise Men rode to Bethlehem.

We have no such problem with the names of the three camels that at noon on Friday began giving free rides in Civic. Their names were Sarah (I interviewed her at considerable depth, marvelling at her fabulous eyelashes), Cappuccino and ‘Tasha. They belong to Peter Hodge Camels and so, too, does Topsy, an endearingly scruffy little dog who goes everywhere the camels go.

“Aren’t they big!” one little girl, queueing for a ride, marvelled.

“They are hooooge!” her grown-up female companion gasped.

As the hoogely popular camels came and went from Ainslie Place near the musically splishy-splashy Canberra Times Fountain a brisk breeze picked up the fountain’s waters and threw a refreshing spray at man and camel.

“It’s just like being at an oasis,” Sarah confided to me.

One young woman, chortling, engaged in that new art form the camelback selfie.

Camels are always objects of wonder. Their shapes are so improbable and yet they are strangely graceful. On Friday as the humped triumvirate swayed to Akuna Street and back they lent the neighbourhood a kind of dignity. And a biblical, Christmassy dignity at that, because of their species’ vital contribution to the saga of the Nativity. Had the Three Wise Men journeyed to Bethlehem on bicycles or Segway scooters the occasion would have lacked poetry.*

And they, the camels, are the second seldom-seen-in-Canberra creatures being marvelled at at the moment. Loyal readers will know we have been reporting readers’ recent sightings here of rainbow lorikeets. These are dazzlinglycoloured birds (far too vulgar in my opinion, like the worst of Hawaiian shirts) birds we expect to see at the coast but don’t expect to see here. Sightings in recent days, especially in a Narrabundah garden blessed with a heavilyladen loquat tree, have rekindled debate about where the rainbow lorikeets seen in Canberra come from. Are they escapees and rellos of escapees from aviaries, or are they here because of natural expansions and drifts of their populations?

Canberra’s Dr Joseph Forshaw is a world-renowned authority on parrots. In response to the sightings of recent days he ventures that “rainbow lorikeets have been in Canberra since at least the 1980s, when I observed nesting at the Macquarie Oval.”

“At that time numbers were very low, and the birds were quite locally dispersed, occurring mainly at Macquarie and Hawker. It was tempting to suspect that these very local, small populations originated from escaped cagebirds, and that may well have been so.

“Numbers increased quite significantly during the period that I was away from Canberra, between 1990 and 2002, so raising the possibility that they had come from the south coast, where populations increased significantly during this same period. “However, I am not aware of any build-up in numbers in the intervening areas, and indeed I know of no records from the Braidwood-Bungendore region.

“There is good evidence that the now abundant population in southwestern Australia probably originated from a small number of birds that escaped or were released from captivity at the University of Western Australia in the 1960s, and the population in the vicinity of Auckland, New Zealand, similarly originated from a small number of escaped cagebirds, so we know that a strong population can build up quickly from a small number of birds. That may well have occurred in Canberra, but the evidence is merely anecdotal.

“Musk lorikeets and little lorikeets always have appeared in Canberra at irregular intervals, but both naturally occur at more inland localities, and I suspect that warming climate has enabled both to ascend to higher elevations in the Southern Highlands, so they are being seen more regularly in Canberra and district. Possibly the same circumstances have aided range expansion by the purple-crowned lorikeet, and also may be assisting in establishment of rainbow lorikeet populations.

“These comments are offered merely for what they are – speculative theories without solid supporting evidence!”

Of course a more fanciful, more New Ageist columnist would point to the eerie coincidence of these new ACT rainbow lorikeet sightings with the elevation of the “openly gay” Andrew Barr to the chief ministership. He or she, that kind of columnist, might say the rainbow lorikeets’ showings are A Sign because of course the rainbow flag is the gay pride flag.

The media’s constant references to Andrew Barr being “the first openly gay state or territory leader” has me wondering why this kind of reference to public figures’ sexuality is not more common.

For example I may be the first openly heterosexual Gang-gang columnist, although if so this will be because no previous Gang-gang columnist’s sexuality has ever arisen as a matter of newsworthiness. Perhaps, coming out of the closet here and now to admit to my November 23 birthday I am this column’s first openly Sagittarian writer.

*The camels will be swaying to Akuna Street and back, from 1pm to 7pm until December 21.

Ian Thompson of the American Civil Liberties Union lamented the “deliberate” decision, saying: “Ideally they would have removed sexual orientation entirely from the donor criteria and moved to a risk-based screening process.

“That is obviously not what they have chosen to do.”

Some campaigners are now considering putting pressure on the government to push for a legislative change – but a Democrat-backed measure is unlikely to get through after control of the Senate goes back to the Republicans.

In England, Wales and Scotland, MSM are banned from giving blood for 12 months after sexual activity. Northern Ireland maintains a permanent ban.

Kerry Smith has quit as Ukip’s candidate in a top target seat after being forced to apologise for a series of offensive comments.

In recordings of phone calls obtained by the Mail on Sunday, the would-be MP was said to have mocked gay party members as “poofters”, joked about shooting people from Chigwell in a “peasant hunt” and referred to someone as a “Chinky bird”.

They were revealed just days after he was reinstated as the party’s general election candidate in South Basildon and East Thurrock.

He initially apologised and explained that he had been under great stress at the time of the comments and taking strong pain killers.

But in a statement, he said: “I have this evening offered my resignation as Ukip PPC for South Basildon and East Thurrock.

“I want the best for South Basildon and East Thurrock and I want to see the real issues discussed that touch the lives of people.

“Therefore I have chosen to resign so that Ukip can win this seat next May.”

Mr Smith was deselected as the candidate for South Basildon and East Thurrock in October – with Neil Hamilton, the former Tory minister who is now Ukip’s deputy chairman, the most prominent of those in the frame to take the nomination.

But Mr Hamilton ended up endorsing the Essex county councillor in his hustings speech after Mr Smith was reinstated – leading the ex-Conservative to lash out at party insiders over a “dirty tricks” campaign being run against him.

His tirade against the “cancer at the heart of Ukip” came after a letter from the party’s finance committee about his expenses claims was leaked.

Mr Hamilton called for the party’s national executive committee (NEC) to take action against those involved in the “black arts of selective briefing, misrepresentation and outright lies”.

Ukip MEP Patrick O’Flynn, who is the party’s candidate in the running to become Cambridge MP, confirmed Mr Smith had not been fired as a result of the scandal.

He pointed out the recorded phone call was some time ago when Mr Smith was on prescription sedatives after an injury and not thinking rationally.

Mr O’Flynn told the BBC’s Sunday Politics: “I’m on the Douglas Carswell side of this where he says what many people call political correctness is often just politeness.

“Using derogatory, pejorative slang is not right at this level of politics and you shouldn’t do it.”

Asked why Mr Smith was previously dropped as a candidate, Mr O’Flynn said he was not sure.

But he insisted: “If Kerry Smith was seriously homophobic, then he clearly would not have been backing David Coburn (MEP for Scotland) who is gay over Stephen Woolfe (Ukip immigration spokesman) who is not.

“He needs to learn to express himself more respectfully about minorities of all kinds now he is off the prescription drugs and he is our candidate.

“He is very popular… He is a young man, he is learning politics.

“We don’t want to become so anodyne and speaking in such non-colloquial language that we lose touch and I think some of the other parties risk doing that.

“But clearly what he said there is unacceptable. He has apologised unreservedly. There are big mitigating circumstances. It is from some time ago and we are willing now to judge him on his performance going froward from now.”

On the party’s wider prospects, Mr O’Flynn accepted the “hand grenades are rolling down the corridor again”.

But he added: “We are still way up in the polls. We have had a fantastic year. We have won a set of nationwide elections. We have won two by-elections against expectations of Tory high command.”

He also pointed out there were rows over inappropriate comments in relation to both Labour and the Conservatives as well last week, namely Aberdeen North MP Frank Doran’s claim the post of fisheries minister was not suitable for a woman and Tory peer Baroness Jenkin’s remark that the poor “don’t know how to cook”.

In the leaked recordings, Mr Smith is said to have claimed Mr Farage was bribed into promoting Mr Woolfe over Mr Coburn when they were candidates in the 2012 London Assembly elections..

But he later allegedly confirmed there was no evidence to substantiate the claim, adding: “If we had proof Nigel would be gone.”

He is also understood to have attacked Olly Neville, former leader of Ukip’s youth wing who was sacked last year after saying he backed gay marriage.

According to the Mail on Sunday transcripts, Mr Smith said: “Olly Neville – the sun shines out of his rear end. He is now setting up BLT Ukip on Facebook. What the old poofter groups call themselves.

“I just call it BLT like the sandwiches. It’s them letters BLT with a Q on the end, bacon lettuce and tomato.

Mr Smith is also said to have mocked Lucy Bostick, a Ukip activist in Chigwell, for printing “boring c**p” on her leaflets.

According to the transcripts, he said: “This is Chigwell. If she was doing a survey in Chigwell the question should be ‘Do you oppose the EU banning the use of lead in shotguns as that way you can shoot more peasants coming from Chigwell? ‘Do you support a peasant’s hunt through Chigwell village?'”

In addition he is understood to have referred to a “Chinky bird” he claimed gatecrashed a Ukip rally and lunch with Mr Farage.

Nike’s openly gay Chief Information Officer, Anthony Watson, left the company this week after less than a year—and sources say it’s because he was miserable in Portland, where the sportswear is located.

“As a single gay guy from London,” a source told Fortune. “Watson underestimated what it would be like. It was a culture shock [in Portland]. And there’s no point in having a great job if you feel unhappy with your surroundings.”

It might not be swinging London, but we always thought Portland was pretty awesome.

A monk was arrested on Monday for distributing anti-gay leaflets in Cambridge, England.

Brother Damon Kelly, director of the Black Hermits, a Scottish charity that receives between $40,000 and $55,000 in donations each year, was arrested under a statute banning “threatening or abusive behavior”

In October, Kelly distributed flyers that declared “Homosexuals, like vampires in their insatiable lust, prey upon youth, as they conspire to create more of their own kind, meanwhile busy abusing each other’s anuses and worshiping (sic) their own and each others’ penises in a festival of authentic Satanism.”

A new study indicates that a conversation with a gay person can have a more profound effect on someone’s attitudes about gay marriage than one with a heterosexual.

A group of 41 canvassers were sent door-to-door in L.A. last year to talk to some 9,507 registered voters about marriage equality. Surveys given immediately after the interview indicated an 8% increase in favorable opinions about same-sex marriage across the board.

But a year later, the results were even better: Support for same-sex marriage had increased 14% if the canvasser was gay. If the canvasser was straight, the increase was just 3%.

“A lot of time we find in social science that most things don’t work, they don’t change people’s minds,” lead author Michael LaCourtold the L.A. Times. “But we found that a single conversation was able to change voters’ minds up to a year later.”

Anti-gay Republican Rick Santorum has tipped his hat thathe’ll be running for president again in 2016. But, he says, his focus will be more on issues like the economy and immigration.

“Part of what I had to do last time was lay out my bona fides” on moral and social issues, Santorum said. “That’s done.”

Sorry, Rick, you’re still one frothy mixture we don’t want in the White House.

Last week, Florian Philippot, the NFP’s vice-presidential candidate, was pictured in Closer with his boyfriend in Vienna.

Unlike the States, the personal lives of French politicians are usually off limits for the press. The Telegraph calls the incident “an embarrassment for the [National Front], whose attitude towards homosexuals has historically ranged from ambivalent to downright homophobic.”

In the past, leaders of the Front have denied the Holocaust and said ebola was the cure for France’s immigration woes. The party opposes marriage equality, which came to France last year.

After several Christian bakeries faced legal woes for denying cakes to gay couples, anti-gay activist Theodore Shoebat called 13 pro-LGBT bakers and requested a cake with the words “Gay marriage is wrong” on it.

Shoebat maintains he was denied all 13 times. “One baker even said that she would make me a cookie with a large phallus on it,” says Shoebat, who maintains his “experiment” proves that LGBT allies are more “militant and intolerant” than Christians.

(CNN) —Openly gay ski legend Anja Paerson says the IOC is out of touch on Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) issues and that she has little confidence that recent changes to the Olympic Charter will prevent discrimination in the future.

Sweden’s Paerson, who retired in 2012 after a glittering career, which included Olympic gold and seven world championship titles, claims the IOC should have taken a firmer stance in the controversial build-up to 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.

Ahead of the Games, LGBT supporters were outraged when the Russian government passed a law in June 2013 prohibiting “gay propaganda.”

The law says it is a crime to publicly acknowledge that you are gay, provide information on homosexuality to minors, or publicly support equal rights for gays.

Paerson told CNN’s Alpine Edge program that the IOC, which at the time released a statement saying it had “received assurances from the highest level of government in Russia that the legislation will not affect those attending or taking part in the Games,” had effectively ducked the issue.

“The Olympic Committee had a huge responsibility in Sochi and they didn’t stand up for human rights,” she said.

“They were hiding from the difficult questions. I think at that point they made a lot of wrong choices.”

Paerson admitted that she had severe misgivings about going to the Games for her work as a Swedish TV analyst and claimed she was not alone.

“I think a lot of athletes were very uncomfortable. I even figured if I should go or not.

“But I made a choice to go. And I stood for being a gay person and I had my family there, I had my son and my wife. I didn’t feel like Russia should choose the way I live.”

Paerson also believes that her own sport’s ruling body, the International Ski Federation, (FIS) needs to step up to the plate and better support gay athletes.

“Even in alpine skiing I think it’s not talked about enough. From the athlete’s side I think it’s really hard to speak up at the Olympics and I think that’s where we have to have changes,” she added.

In the wake of the controversy, the IOC announced earlier this month that it had made an amendment to the Olympic Charter to specifically include the wording “sexual orientation.”

Principle 6 of the Charter now reads:

“The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Olympic Charter shall be secured without discrimination of any kind, such as race, color, sex, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”

IOC President Thomas Bach of Germany described the change as “a very important first step” following a unanimous vote in favor of the move.

“We have to look into the future and try to address the challenges which may arise in the future and the challenges we have already now,” he added.

But Paerson is not convinced this change is sufficient to ensure that future hosts of the Winter Games are held accountable by the IOC for breaches of human rights.

“Hopefully they have learned from Sochi Olympics and will get better in the future,” she said.

Paerson, who was a member of the FIS Athlete Commission, is also calling for her own sport and the IOC to freshen up its membership to better reflect modern views.

“They don’t really follow the new developments,” she believes.

“I hope that both in the Olympic Committee and other sports that the younger generation get more influence because we have a different mindset,” she added.

The IOC was not immediately available to comment when contacted by CNN over Paerson’s remarks.

The 33-year-old can certainly look back on a stunningly successful career — a two-time winner of the coveted overall World Cup title — in addition to her triumphs at world and Olympic levels.

But all the while she kept her sexuality a closely guarded secret and it was only on retiring from her sport that she put an end to persistent rumors and revealed she is gay.

In June 2012, a few months after her farewell race, Paerson went on Swedish public radio to announce that she had been in a relationship with her partner Filippa, whom she first met in 2005.

“I never started to believe that I was gay when I was young,” she told CNN.

“This just happened when I met my wife. She was married and I had a boyfriend. Our lives were just thrown upside down.”

The timing of the announcement was a dilemma, Paerson admits, and they had been worried about the reaction it would receive.

“We were nervous of course, how people would respond. It was important for us to build our atmosphere, our family, our house, our castle before we let everybody else into our life.

“I think why I didn’t choose to announce it when I was still racing was that I wanted to be a 100 percent focused on my races.”

The pair formally tied the knot and were married earlier this year and have a 2-year-old son, Elvis.

Paerson was trained to her biggest successes by her father Anders, her peak achievement coming in 2007 on the home snow of Are, where she grabbed a stunning three gold medals, a silver and a bronze in the world championships.

It came at the end of a difficult season, but after being urged by him to take a short break from training everything clicked into gear.

“I had about 10 days to mentally prepare to believe that my skiing was good enough to win that gold medal. My dad told me ‘go home, go to your friends, do whatever for two days and come back’.”

When she did, Paerson proved unstoppable across all the disciplines to dominate the competition.

Are was the venue for this weekend’s World Cup competition, and although retired, Paerson has been taking a keen interest in the proceedings.

She has seen compatriot Maria Pietilae-Holmer provide home cheer by taking the slalom title Saturday.

Pietilae-Holmer edged out overall World Cup leader Tina Maze of Slovenia by just 0.06 seconds.

Another Swede, Frida Hansdotter, was third 0.32 seconds off the pace, with Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States back in fourth after a poor first run.

The in-form Maze, who had many battles with Paerson’s during the Swede’s career, won the giant slalom Friday from another home hope hope, Sara Hector.

Mississippi pastor brought a horse in a wedding dress to stand with him outside a federal courthouse on Friday in Jackson to protest a federal judge’s ruling, currently on hold, to overturn the socially conservative state’s ban on gay marriage.

The horse, complete with white flowers tucked into its harness and a bouquet at its feet, munched grass as the pastor, Edward James of Bertha Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, spoke and waved signs at passersby.

“Do you take this horse to be your unnatural wedded spouse to have and to hold?” one sign read.

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves struck down Mississippi’s same-sex marriage ban in a ruling last month. Gay couples cannot yet marry in Mississippi pending the outcome of a state appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which is hearing arguments in the case on Jan. 9.

Gay marriage is legal in 35 U.S. states, a trend that has accelerated since the Supreme Court ruled in June 2013 that legally married same-sex couples nationwide are eligible for federal benefits, striking down a key part of the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act.

While gay marriage advocates have enjoyed the upper hand in the courts since then, the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in November became the first to rule the other way in upholding state bans on same-sex marriage.

That decision was seen as setting the stage for the Supreme Court to finally rule on the merits of gay marriage nationwide.

Mississippi is home to an estimated 3,484 same-sex couples, according to the most recent decennial census. About one quarter of the couples are raising children.

Speaking in a video-taped interview with the Clarion-Ledger newspaper, James acknowledged that his horse bride was absurd, but said the spectacle served a point.

“Although it’s ridiculous, so is the same-sex marriage status,” he said.

The case of bisexual British businessman Shrien Dewani – cleared this week of murdering his new bride – shone a spotlight on the gay Asian community in Britain. How difficult is it to be gay when homosexuality is seen as a taboo?

It’s a world that’s often hidden.

Many homosexual men – and women – of south Asian descent are believed to be hiding their true sexuality within heterosexual, often arranged, marriages in Britain.

Rahul, a Hindu, knows what that’s like.

He says he always felt he was gay, but accepted an arranged marriage anyway. He thought the “phase” would pass.

“But I realised very quickly that I’d made a huge mistake, that these feelings weren’t going to disappear.”

Family shame

When he finally came out to his family, they were angry.

“I felt that secretly a part of them always knew, I think parents always do know,” he says.

“I think the anger was ‘Oh my god, we all knew he was gay, but he finally told his wife. How could he do that?’.”

Rahul – not his real name – says his parents would have been happier if he’d stayed married, had children and kept quiet about his homosexuality, which his community sees as “shameful”.

He wanted to hide his true identity to protect his family and ex-wife from more shame.

South Asian communities prize marriage highly; from the day their children are born, parents begin saving for their weddings.

Many gay people come under intense pressure to marry someone of the opposite sex.

According to Asif Quraishi, who works for the support charity Naz, many of them succumb.

His contacts with people lead him to believe as many as seven in 10 gay Asians are in what he calls “inauthentic marriages”.

‘Derogatory words’

“There isn’t actually a word for gay or lesbian in our mother languages,” he says.

“The only words that there are are totally derogatory.”

Asif is one of the UK’s few gay, Asian drag queens. He’s also a practising Muslim.

As Asifa Lahore, he runs a club night in west London.

Many of the men and women there are leading double lives, conforming to what their families require of them, while also being gay.

Several talk about how much pressure they are under from their families to have a heterosexual marriage.

One man in the club says that when he came out to his family, his brother took him to a strip bar to try to “cure” him.

He says if his family knew he was at a gay nightclub, they’d kill him for “honour”.

Honour is still highly prized in Britain’s south Asian communities.

Terrible consequences

Many families tell their gay sons and daughters they should keep quiet about their sexuality for the honour of the family.

“Gay Asians need to take responsibility, to use the exposure to question these marriages.

“And, at the same time, the British Asian community needs to recognise that by pressuring their children into these marriages, it leads to mental health problems – and the real victims are the heterosexual partners.”

Salma – not her real name – was certainly a victim.

She was forced into marriage to a cousin at 19. He told her on their wedding night he was gay.

“When we were left alone and it was time to go to bed, he said ‘Is it alright if I sleep next door because I’m not into women?’,” she recalls.

Their marriage was never consummated, but when she left him, she says she was blamed.

Even her own family tried to persuade her to go back, telling her she was a “bad wife”.

Her mother told her if she “had done everything right, he wouldn’t have been gay”.

Salma adds: “She said ‘You should have touched him, made him have feelings for you’.”

The attitude of the south Asian community to homosexuality has even been absorbed by some of the gay and lesbian members within it.

Hrpreet – not his real name – is a married man in his 20s with a young son.

‘Life in tatters’

He says that if his child told him he was gay, he’d be upset because being gay is wrong.

And yet Hrpreet calls himself bisexual, and says he prefers having sex with men.

His wife and family don’t know that he regularly goes to gay clubs and picks up men.

If they found out, his life would be in tatters, he says.

In a country where gay rights are enshrined in law, for many British Asians so much is still shrouded in secrecy.

And it will remain so until their community accepts them for who they are and understands that marrying someone of the opposite sex is not a “cure” for being gay.

Guillaume Gallienne was different from his three athletic brothers – he liked to dance and dress up as a woman. His mother treated him like a girl and told him he was gay. The thing is, he was actually heterosexual in his early teens, Guillaume Gallienne’s mother told him that he was gay. He had always found it difficult fitting in with his macho father and athletic brothers, and so everyone in the family was convinced that he was gay – including Guillaume himself.

It took him several years to realise that was not strictly true.

Even when he started to go out with girls, his parents insisted that he was in denial and when he announced his engagement to the woman who is now his wife, neither his mother nor his father spoke to him for 24 hours.

Guillaume was born in Paris into a haute-bourgeois family. His mother, Melitta, a descendant of the Russian-Georgian aristocracy, married Jean-Claude, a wealthy businessman. They had four sons, of whom Guillaume was the third. But he was not a boy in the way his brothers were or in the way his tyrannical father wanted him to be.

“I did not correspond to the masculine criteria of my family,” he says. “My father was in the French Olympic bobsleigh team – he liked sailing and horse riding. I was scared of horses and would get seasick.”

Instead, young Guillaume preferred to dance, learn Spanish and dress up like Sisi, the Empress of Austria, who was known as the loveliest woman in Europe, using his mother’s duvet as a crinoline.

“Being a man meant being brutal, but I didn’t feel strong enough. Very early on, I realised that I could not be like the men in my family, but that I also didn’t want to be like them. The only alternative for me was to turn to the women of my family and especially my mother, whom I adored.”

There was only one way for the young Guillaume to justify in his own mind why he was not a “real” boy and at the same time be close to his mother by differentiating himself from his brothers, and that was to believe that he was, in fact, a girl.

When Guillaume’s mother wanted to call him and his brothers to supper, she would call: “Les garçons et Guillaume – à table!” (Boys and Guillaume, to the table!) This sentence later inspired his coming-of-age one-man show and now a film, Me, Myself and Mum. The idea came during a session with his psychiatrist and he decided to write an autobiographical film about a boy who learns to accept his heterosexuality, in a family that had decided he was homosexual.

“It became the connecting link for all the separate anecdotes in the puzzle of my life; as if all the years of confusion suddenly made sense.”

Guillaume stars in the film as his younger self and also as his mother in drag. Now 41 and a well-known French actor and member of the acclaimed Comédie-Française theatre, he seems to be at peace with his troubled childhood. In the film, he manages to revisit it with humour but also a sense of justice, in what he calls a love letter to women, but most of all to his mother.

Did she simply treat him like the daughter she never had? The answer is not clear, even to Guillaume. He says: “I think she did, but subconsciously. When we talk on the phone, she always hangs up saying ‘Kisses, my darling’” (in French, ma cherie, which she uses to speak to her son, is the feminine gender).

The strong, complex personality of his mother, who was very feminine, fascinated him. “She was never tender with us – never hugged or kissed us – and was often blunt and cold, but she could also be warm. She was a fantastic woman, deeply modest and shy, and extremely funny. In her, I could see qualities I preferred.”

She inspired him to the extent that he began to imitate her. His voice ended up resembling hers so much that even his grandmother would sometimes mistake him for her daughter.

At the age of 10, Guillaume was sent to a Christian Brothers boarding school. For the first time, he found himself feeling different outside the microcosm of his family. “I was very effeminate and precious. My snobbish classmates often bullied me and insulted me, calling me a faggot. I used to spend every day crying.”

To cope with the challenges of school, he had to be inventive. “I had a classmate whose father had died and I noticed people were very nice to him. So when someone asked me one day why I was crying, I said that my father had just died. Of course, my family found out at some point when another classmate’s mother came to dinner at our house and was surprised to see my father was very much alive.”

It is interesting, perhaps, that he decided to “kill” his father. In a symbolic way, he does that in the film, too, as we only see him on few occasions. It seems it is all part of his conscious decision to turn the dark moments of his childhood into a light-hearted comedy and to search for the funny side of the sometimes ugly truth.

The difficulties at school led to a nervous breakdown when Guillaume was 12. He began to see a psychiatrist who recommended to his parents that they send their son away. Guillaume went to a boys’ boarding school in England, near Portsmouth, but this time found himself in an environment where he felt free to be different. He loved the experience.

“I blended in very easily. The fact that we were all wearing uniforms applied some kind of equality, as there was no judgment based on appearance. No one made fun of me there. I could finally be myself.” He even developed a crush on a boy, although he never told him. He told his mother, but she had a surprise in store. “Of course you are in love with a boy,” she said. “It’s because you are gay.”

Until then, everything had been clear in his mind. “I knew I couldn’t be a boy, because I was not strong and brutal. So I had to be a girl and fall in love with a boy, as girls do. When my mum told me the reason I was in love with a man was because I was gay, my whole world fell apart. I had spent my life thinking I was a girl – now I had to learn how to be a boy!”

He does not know if the fact that his father wanted him to be a “real” man, while his mother subconsciously treated him as a girl, was a source of conflict between his parents. “My mother would rarely fight to protect us against her husband. He was tyrannical; it was hard to go against his will.”

His father’s choice not to deal with his son’s troubled childhood also manifested itself years later, when he went to see Guillaume’s one-man show. “He did a wonderful thing – he ‘forgot’ his hearing aid. He kept shouting at my mother’s ear, asking her what was happening on stage, so she was not able to follow it either. I had read the text to her much earlier, though, and she found it very funny. But she prefers the film, which she says is more moving. My father never saw it; he died in 2009.”

In a dysfunctional family, Guillaume has managed to find a silver lining. “My past is not Les Misérables. We grew up in a very lively environment. My parents would take us to operas and plays, and we would travel a lot together.”

Guillaume feels no anger towards his mother. Playing her in the film (a hit in France) allowed him to, literally, occupy her shoes and to feel some empathy for her. “When I was 16, I spoke to her about how I felt. My confusion was also caused by her behaviour towards me. But when I played her in the film and experienced everything through her point of view, I realised it was too easy to blame everything on her.”

He had a few affairs with boys, but didn’t seem to be fulfilled or happy. “My sexual impulses for men were very narcissistic. I hated myself; I was feeling ugly and inadequate. I was so humiliated by the men of my family that if there was a man who treated me differently, I would fall in love with him. It was more of a seduction game. Succeeding meant I was not that undesirable.”

The uncertainty continued until his aunt suggested that the only way to find out if he was gay or straight, was to fall in love. Which he did; with a woman. He met Amandine 14 years ago. It was love at first sight and it changed his life. They have been happily married since 2004 and have a seven-year-old son, Tado.

There is a scene towards the end of the film, where Guillaume, in a “reversed coming out” as he calls it, tells his mother that he is straight and in love with a woman.

The announcement comes to her as a shock and evokes a cruel realisation. All these years, if she was convinced her son was gay, it meant that she would always remain the most important woman in his life. Now that he was confirmed as straight and in love with a woman, she had lost her exclusive relationship with him.

How did his mother cope with that in real life? “It took her many years to come to terms with it. The way she’s been with my girlfriends – and still is with my wife – is very different to how she is with my brothers’ girlfriends. When Amandine and I announced our engagement, my parents didn’t speak to us for 24 hours. Amandine was very sad. I went to my mother and said: ‘It’s very simple. Either you start being polite to my girlfriend or the wedding and the children are going to happen without you. You choose.’

“So she accepted her, but until this day I believe she still doesn’t like the idea of me being with a woman.”

When it comes to labels, he refuses to accept any. “My sexuality today is straight because I fell in love with a woman. If I would fall in love with a man tomorrow, I would have a gay life. Who we happen to be attracted to depends on our heart – it’s not something we can control. I could erase my past and say that I am a straight man but my past is what built me and is still part of me; less and less though. My wife’s love reassures me, fulfills me and makes me feel strong.”

The birth of his son made him feel strong, too, in a way he had never experienced before. “Tado is an amazing child. Contrary to me, he actually enjoys doing boys’ stuff. I love him so much, I play football with him, which for me was, of course, inconceivable before,” he laughs.

• Me, Myself and Mum is on at Ciné Lumière at the French Institute, London SW7, until 18 December and then on selected release, institut-francais.org.uk

Rich Homie Quan replies to rumors that he and Young Thug are homosexuals.

Rich Homie Quan and Young Thug are two of Atlanta’s hottest artists out right now. However, with success comes detractors and rumors get spread.

One longstanding rumor about Young Thug particularly is that he’s a gay man, a hearsay mostly developed via the rapper’s Instagram, which contains numerous pictures of Thug and other rappers with captions containing the words “bae” and “lovers” in reference to their relationship.

Recently sitting down with Sway in the Morning on Shade 45, Rich Homie Quan addressed the Young Thug/gay rumors and even fielded a question about his own sexuality.

“First and foremost I try not to get into all the comments, because it be so many, but at the same time I see them. If I respond back to that, that’s what they want me to do,” Rich Homie Quan said when asked about gay rumors. “Everyone in Atlanta know me and Young Thug is not gay. With Thug it’s different, it’s just his slang. I don’t take nothing of it or nothing. I know I ain’t gay, everybody know I ain’t gay… I get a joke out of it, ’cause it’s just so funny how people will take anything and run with it.”

Rich Homie Quan also spoke about his relationship with Young Thug musically and says the two record around 15 collaborative tracks a week.

“I really feel he seen that energy in us. The same energy he seen in them when they were young,” Quan said, “I think he just fell in love with the work ethic.”

“This damaging and hateful debate that we’ve been having in the provincial legislature around Bill 202 and Bill 10 does nothing but reinforce negative stereotypes,” Nenshi told several hundred business leaders during a Calgary Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

In the face of a mounting backlash this month, Premier Jim Prentice hit pause on the contentious Bill 10, which could have forced gay-straight alliance meetings off school property if local school boards objected to their presence.

The premier said last week he accepted “personal responsibility” for the bill, introduced to counter Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman’s Bill 202, which would have mandated gay-straight alliances at a student’s request.

The move means Bill 10 will remain in limbo until the Progressive Conservative government conducts more consultation on the issue and decides to address it again next year.

But the mayor warned Thursday that the entire debate was “ridiculous,” as politicians spent two weeks discussing what clubs Alberta students can join. He argued gay-straight alliances help keep students stay safe and prevent suicide among a vulnerable group of kids.

If we say that we live in a city where we were thinking it would be OK for a 15-year-old to appear before a judge to … start a club in his school, a club that no one would be forced to belong to, well folks, that would be the Scopes Monkey Trial of Alberta

“What was happening was dangerous,” Nenshi said of the proposed legislation. “By saying not all rights are absolute, the government seemed to be saying that our children don’t have the right to be safe. That’s not right. That’s not fair.”

Gay-straight alliances, or GSAs, are typically formed by students as a voluntary support system for LGBTQ kids. But opponents have argued that forcing schools to approve such alliances would be a breach of school board autonomy and infringe on parental rights.

Bill 10 also could have forced students to head to court to press for gay-straight alliances, if turned down by school boards.

During his fiery address, Nenshi likened the bill to an infamous 1925 trial in which the State of Tennessee accused a high school teacher of violating a law prohibiting the teaching of evolution in publicly funded schools.

“If we say that we live in a city where we were thinking it would be OK for a 15-year-old to appear before a judge to … start a club in his school, a club that no one would be forced to belong to, well folks, that would be the Scopes Monkey Trial of Alberta,” he said.

“We would end up having international attention towards what kind of hillbillies we are. None of us need that.”

I don’t know how much praise we should be giving Jim Prentice for pulling the bill. He basically wrote it and used it as a way of circumventing Bill 202, so praising him is a bit much

Nenshi repeatedly thanked Prentice for stalling the bill for further consultation, adding that it’s time “for us to say straight out that we are indeed welcoming, that we are indeed working hard to make sure that every single person can succeed here.”

Prentice’s press secretary responded to Nenshi’s remarks in an email saying the premier took personal responsibility for the introduction of Bill 10 and the impact it had on Alberta’s LGBTQ youth.

“The purpose of putting Bill 10 on hold was to allow for a respectful conversation amongst Albertans who have differing views about how we can ensure our schools are respectful and inclusive,” Emily Woods said Thursday.

At the legislature, Blakeman said she was grateful Nenshi had the courage to speak out while the city is in critical negotiations with the province to draft a big city charter.

The Edmonton MLA said Nenshi’s comments are refreshing and prove that most Albertans support equality “and this government is back in the 1950s, or worse.”

But she wanted to point out to Calgary’s mayor that Prentice has only paused Bill 10 — and the controversial legislation could return in the spring.

Jeff Wilson, Wildrose MLA for Calgary-Shaw, said Nenshi raised some valid points about the Bill 10 debate, but wondered where the mayor was last week when the issue was “top of mind.”

He also questioned how much credit Prentice deserved for putting the bill on hold, noting the legislation was opposed by many people “in all corners of the province and by all parties.”

“I don’t know how much praise we should be giving Jim Prentice for pulling the bill,” Wilson added. “He basically wrote it and used it as a way of circumventing Bill 202, so praising him is a bit much.”

It starts out simply enough: I open up Scruff and peruse nearby men, looking at their profiles; immediately ignoring anyone I deem less-than-attractive, regardless of what their personality may entail; and filtering through guys according to which of the app’s rudimentary self-descriptors they’ve claimed for themselves. “Handsome guy, but he labels himself a ‘jock’?” I ask myself. On to the next. “This one is labeled as a ‘geek’ and nothing else? Must have no life.” Next. “Oh, a ‘daddy’ who’s looking for ‘bear chasers’? What would I ever want with him?” Pass. And so the cycle continues until I’m struck by the realization that I’ve been conditioned to become one judgmental bitch.

I’ve stopped trying to meet men during the day-to-day of my existence and instead have turned to the convenience and relative anonymity of apps and online dating. Guys in my city congregate in a very concentrated number of places, none of which I would consider my “scene,” which has effectively nullified my hopes of a meet-cute. Apps have made it easy for me to approve or veto men based solely on a basic bio and a handful of precreated self-descriptors that come packaged with the software. As I’ve observed my own behaviors and those of my peers, friends, and acquaintances, I’ve become increasingly certain that the gay community is no longer a true community at all but a hierarchy of cliques and labels.

I think the issue stems in large part from society’s preoccupation with categorization. While many members of our nation have expressed a desire to move to a state of being that is “post-label,” the gay community is investing more time and energy into creating smaller boxes into which we can neatly shoehorn our kin. Are you a jock, geek, daddy, bear, bear-chaser, or the like? What happens when you don’t quaintly fit into one of these preconfigured niches of gay life?

It’s simple: We turn on you. You, a person who has sought to escape the marginalization forced upon you by the predominately heteronormative American public, have jumped out of the social frying pan and into its fire. Your bravery in choosing to publicize your orientation has been for naught. We will isolate you and ostracize you. I myself am a prime example and, as you’ve seen, have also been a massive contributor to the problem, especially in my hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.

If I’m allowing myself to be perfectly honest, I’d be labeled an “otter.” I’m thinner, and I have a good amount of body hair. Unfortunately, that’s the only descriptor that’s accessible to me in today’s culture, and it does a frighteningly poor job of describing who I am as a person. I like sports, but I can’t talk for hours about football (tennis, perhaps), so I don’t qualify as a “jock.” I play video games, but I don’t identify with “gaymer” culture, so “geek” is out. I work out, but I’m not a gym rat, so goodbye, “muscle.” I enjoy high culture, but there are also moments when I want to watch a trashy sitcom and turn off my mind for several hours, but there’s no category for someone like that.

As I result I, like many others, don’t quite fit into any single subset of the gay population but I’m not so far removed that I’m altogether separate from the community. Instead I exist as a fringe member of gay society, neither a fixture of the scene nor a pariah. My inability to actively own up to one of these preformed online identities makes it difficult to even engage in conversation, let alone make new friends or go on dates. “But wait,” you say. “I’m a lot like that too! I don’t fit into just one category!” And therein lies the crux of the problem: People, as a whole, cannot be described, identified, and understood by a handful of trite labels and categories, despite how hard we try as a result of social and sexual convenience.

Unfortunately, the modern gay male has become less of a human and more of a consumer, using and discarding his brethren, treating the body as a product, and it has become disposable as a result. In our culture you wouldn’t buy an item off the shelf if it weren’t neatly labeled and handsomely packaged, would you? So why would you afford that concession to a person? We’ve begun crafting relationships using the same tactics with which we might approach building a Lego fortress; these self-imposed monikers are becoming the building blocks of what we deem to be a desirable companion, sexual or otherwise, often leading us to fully assess potential matches before we’ve even met them, chemistry be damned!

We are taught by those around us that this is how we are, and too many of us, including me, have drunk that proverbial Kool-Aid. I’m thirsty for something more, something richer, something both filling and fulfilling. I want the men I know, the ones I don’t, and the ones I’d love to meet to push for accurate depictions of gay men in the media, eschew the self-imposed sociocultural restrictions we’ve enacted, and cease living out the stereotypes that we all proclaim to hate but in which we readily indulge on a consistent basis.

Perhaps it would make most sense to quote 2004’s Mean Girls — and let’s face it, the gay community is actively working to segregate itself just as much as those lunch tables in that fictional high-school cafeteria did — and say, “You all have got to stop calling each other sluts and whores. It just makes it OK for guys to call you sluts and whores.” While the syntax is different, the core message is the same. If we continue, as a unit, to perpetuate this uninviting, fractured sense of “community” amongst our members, we just make it more and more appealing for the broader public to do the same to us.

CAIRO — Egypt’s government has aggressively cracked down on Islamist and liberal opponents over the past year. Now officials are increasingly targeting another group: gay people.

Police raided a public bathhouse in Cairo this month and arrested at least two dozen men, parading them half-naked in front of television cameras before hauling them off to prison.

It was the latest in a series of police busts at suspected meeting places of homosexuals across the country. Arrests of gay people have been on the rise since President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi seized power in a military coup in 2013, but in recent months the arrests have escalated, rights groups say.

“It’s a full-on crackdown on all sorts of freedoms,” said a prominent gay-rights activist in Egypt, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing crackdown. “There is a lot of fear in Egypt’s gay community,” he said. “Many people want to leave the country.”

As a fiercely conservative, largely Muslim society, Egypt has never openly accepted gay or transgender people. In the early 2000s, the government of then-president Hosni Mubarak staged similar raids on gay-friendly hangouts and jailed dozens of people. Gay activists are comparing the current campaign to the darkest days under the Mubarak government.

Homosexuality is not illegal per se under Egyptian law. But prosecutors charge defendants under a section of the penal code that criminalizes prostitution and debauchery. In April, four men were sentenced to between eight and 12 years in prison each for debauchery after a raid on an all-male party they attended at a villa in a Cairo suburb. About 150 people have been arrested in such raids since 2013, rights groups say.

Egypt’s Interior Ministry did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the detentions at the bathhouse, and it was not clear what charges the men might face.

Hope gives way to fear

When protesters rose up to oust the long-ruling Mubarak in 2011, many gay, lesbian and transgender Egyptians had hoped they would finally be able to secure their place in a new, democratic system.

“After the revolution, there was this intense feeling of euphoria,” said another Egyptian gay-rights activist. He, too, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fears for his safety. He is working outside the country.

“People began to embrace each other and began to feel at least partially accepted,” he said. “The community was more visible, and the public became more aware that we exist.”

But now many gay Egyptians are living in fear.

Activists say the current persecution of homosexuals is part of a broaderstate clampdown on dissidents of all stripes. Since the coup, the government has jailed tens of thousands of Islamists, liberal activists and anti-government students.

But the gay community is not being targeted for its members’ political activism. Rather, in an era of fervent nationalism and pro-military sentiment, homosexuals are seen as failing to uphold traditional standards of manhood, activists say.

“The government is pumping out nationalist rhetoric and xenophobic speech all the time. They want to enforce a stereotypical vision of masculinity,” said the first gay activist. “But of course that vision sees homosexuality as a weakness and as against nationalist values.”

TV station’s role in raid

The bathhouse raid, on Dec. 7, was particularly troubling for the gay community, activists here say. Not only was a television crew from a popular satellite channel on hand to document the operation, but the channel’s own journalists also had actually prompted the arrests by informing police that gay men went to have sex at the location.

The channel, Al Kahera Wal Nas, had planned to feature the bathhouse, or hammam, in a special report on AIDS in Egypt, calling it a “den of sin” but offering no proof that any illegal activity had taken place there. Bathhouses are popular in the Arab world, with men and often women visiting them to relax in hot baths or steam rooms.

“This is the first time I have seen such close coordination between the media and the security forces” on an anti-gay raid, said the activist who is outside Egypt.

The television host responsible for the report, Mona al-Iraqi, immediately posted photos of the bare-chested detainees on her Facebook page.

“With pictures, we reveal the biggest den of group perversion in the heart of Cairo,” she wrote, in a post that was later taken down.

Rights groups say people detained in such operations are particularly vulnerable in the penal system.

“From the beginning of the process, they are beaten, verbally abused, threatened with rape,” said Dalia Abd el-Hameed, the head of the gender program at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a local human rights organization.

“If they have long hair, it is forcibly cut, because it’s seen as a sign of effeminacy,” she said. “People are treated in the most humiliating way.”

The suspects are sometimes forced to undergo anal examinations, which are then submitted to the court as evidence of homosexual activity, rights groups say.

Because of the shame of being arrested under such circumstances, detainees often don’t want to contact friends or family members. There are few Egyptian defense lawyers willing to take on such cases, meaning sometimes the accused are left without representation.

“Sissi and the police, they want to assert this idea that they are the guardians of morality in Egypt now,” said the activist who is outside the country.

“So the state is trying to shame people for their private behavior and destroy the lives of anyone with a voice.”

France’s far right National Front party announced Friday that the cofounder of a prominent gay rights group was joining its ranks and will be a future candidate in elections, a surprise move for a group that has long been linked to homophobic views.

Party leader Marine Le Pen and Sébastian Chenu held a joint press conference in Paris to confirm he was leaving the right-wing opposition Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party to work alongside the anti-immigration National Front (FN).

Chenu, a former UMP general secretary, is mostly known in France as one of the founders of GayLib, a gay rights group that also describes itself as being in the centre-right of the political spectrum.

“I am joining Marine Le Pen because of her consistent views on Europe and social issues,” Chenu told reporters.

The 41-year-old politician accused the UMP of fully accepting France’s “submissive” relationship to the European Union. Chenu also added that the UMP and Nicolas Sarkozy, the party’s newly elected president, were “alarmingly” out of touch with LGBT issues.

“[Sarkozy] declared that he supported striking down the gay marriage law,” Chenu lamented in reference to a November 15 speech in front of party members. At the same time, he questioning the former French president’s true convictions on the subject: “he could have said the exact opposite if he was speaking to a gay rights group.”

Chenu’s decision to join Le Pen, based, at least in part, on the hot-button issue of gay marriage, has nevertheless confounded observers, since the FN officially remains opposed to marriage-equality legislation France adopted in 2013, commonly referred to as the “Mariage pour tous”, or Marriage for all, law.

“I will remind you that we are opposed to the marriage for all question, and that we have declared we would repeal the law,” Louis Aliot, Vice-president of the FN and a European MP, was quick to point out in an interview with Radio France International (RFI) on Friday.

Aliot insisted Chenu and the FN had found common ground in their shared rejection of transferring political powers to the EU.

GayLib, which works closely with the UMP, also rushed to highlight the contradiction in Chenu’s decision and to pour censure on one of its original members.

According to GayLib, by tying the knot with the far-right group, Chenu had “betrayed all the political values and objectives that he supposedly defended, in particular the rights of the LGBT community.”

“Sébastian Chenu is joining a political platform that has publicly expressed its rejection of marriage and adoption for same-sex couples,” GayLib deplored in a statement.

Outing Marine Le Pen’s ‘gay lobby’

While Chenu’s induction into the FN family has raised eyebrows and drawn scrutiny, it also appears to confirm Marine Le Pen’s intention to distance the party from her firebrand father and FN founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Le Pen father is infamous for labelling the Holocaust a “detail” in the history of World War Two, but also for declaring on primetime TV in 1984 that homosexuality was a “biological and social anomaly”, and two years later recommending that HIV patients be confined to “AIDS-atoriums.”

Since Le Pen daughter took over the FN in 2011, she has avoided similar incendiary comments and worked hard to make her party more palatable to French constituents. In an often quoted statement after she took the reins of the party, Marine Le Pen called the Holocaust “the ultimate act of barbarism.”

A few weeks later she made another pronouncement at the party’s annual May 1 rally that rang out for many as an appeal for change within the party: “Whether man or woman, heterosexual or homosexual, Christian, Jewish or Muslim, we are foremost French.”

Claims of rampant immigration and insecurity have remained the party’s key issues under Marine Le Pen, but evidence suggests that hate speech directed at Jews and homosexuals is off the agenda. French media, including far-right weekly Minute, have reported that an important number of men in Marine Le Pen’s inner circle are gay, referring to them as her “gay lobby.”

Coincidently, FN party officer Florian Philippot announced this week that he would sue tabloid magazine Closer for recently publishing photos of him and another man the weekly claimed was his boyfriend. Philippot has never publicly confirmed or denied he was gay.

While Chenu’s decision to flip from the UMP to the FN has caught many people off guard, others will see the announcement as further proof of the widening rift between Marine Le Pen entourage and the party’s old guard.

Running away from Islam?

At the height of the anti-gay marriage protests in France last year, Marine Le Pen was nowhere to be seen, even as other FN leaders broke rank to take part in the massive marches. Le Pen’s conspicuous absence has been attributed to her friendship and commitment to Philippot.

Some journalists in France have moved beyond the debate over whether Le Pen’s “gay lobby” really exists, and have asked how gay men can be attracted to a far-right party and why many were considering voting for Marine Le Pen.

In his 2012 book “Why are gays turning to the right” (Pourquoi les gays sont passés à droite, Seuil) French journalist and writer Didier Lestrade suggested gay men in France who feel threatened by hardline Muslim rhetoric are being encouraged by the FN’s anti-Islam rhetoric.

Sylvain Crépon, a French researcher and expert on far right movements in Europe, has said FN leaders are ready to exploit the trend – whether it is widespread or only anecdotal – for electoral gain.

The FN may not have a history of defending gay causes in France, but it is well positioned to denounce the persecution of gay Frenchmen by Muslims in suburbs where immigrants are often in the majority, the researcher explained.

“It’s as much the harassment of gays perpetrated by Muslims as Marine Le Pen’s statements denouncing it that are driving homosexuals to the National Front,” Crépon said.

However, in news that will surprise no one apart from perhaps Alanis Morissette, it turns out the model in photo is not only not an identical twin, but is actually gay.

South African Kyle Roux contacted the local NBC channel in Richmond, Virginia, after the billboard was brought to his attention by friends and family.

“I was obviously quite shocked, so that why I decided to send you guys an email saying hey, I’m that guy in that billboard,” he wrote.

“It just seems like there no place in today’s world for an organisation that is promoting this as being some kind of deviant or distasteful lifestyle, because I’ve lived my life openly gay and happy for my entire life.”

Chris Doyle, counsellor and board member at Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX), said the photo was irrelevant, the issue was “actual science” (our italicisation).

That’s despite the American Psychological Association saying views that sexual orientation could be altered through ‘therapy’ had been “rejected by all the major mental health professions”.

Will now live out rest of his life at a Norwich sanctuary – after the snip

Upon arrival was immediately given a welcome kiss from neighbour Alex

A bull which was destined for the slaughterhouse after a vet said he is gay but was granted a last minute reprieve following an intervention from a Simpsons creator has arrived at his new home.

Benjy the gay bull has today arrived at his new home at Hillside Sanctuary, Norwich, where he will undergo the snip before living out the rest of his days in peace thanks to terminally ill The Simpsons co-creator Sam Simon.

And within seconds of his arrival Benjy experienced his first kiss – from Alex the one year old bullock living in the next door pen on the farm.

Benjy had been just days away from death after his owner became frustrated when he would not breed, but was saved following a fundraising appeal which included a generous contribution from Mr Simon.

But before the bull can completely relax he will have to undergo castration to calm him down and stop him terrorising the other animals.

John Watson, who works at the sanctuary, told Newstalk: ‘We will castrate Benjy, because once you castrate them you don’t tend to notice their sexual preferences so much – it settles them down.’

He added: ‘We’ve got three really gentle elderly cows that are going to be next to him in the barn.’

Benjy had been destined for the butchers after he failed to show any interest in the female cows on his farm in County Mayo and instead seemed to gravitate towards the other bulls.

A vet told his owner that it was Benjy’s sexual orientation that was the reason he wouldn’t and couldn’t breed.

But Hollywood producer and long-term vegan Mr Simon heard about his plight and bought the animal’s freedom by donating £5,000 to buy and transport Benjy to a sanctuary in time for Christmas.

Mr Simon, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2012, recently said that he would give away his entire $100million fortune on animal rights causes.

Mr Simon said: ‘PETA told me about Benjy, and I felt compelled to help. All animals have a dire destiny in the meat trade, but to kill this bull because he’s gay would’ve been a double tragedy.

‘It thrills me to help PETA and ARAN make Benjy’s fate a sanctuary rather than a sandwich.’

Mr Simon was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2012 and has chosen to use his money and the time he has left to help animals in need.

This includes getting 17 bears transferred from virtually barren concrete pits to a lush new home, helping retire a lame horse used for racing and securing the transfer of a chimpanzee who had spent more than 18 years in solitary confinement at a zoo to a reputable sanctuary.

He also runs The Sam Simon Foundation, an organisation dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating homeless dogs.

Given three months to live in 2012, Mr Simon immediately decided to team up with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) president Ingrid Newkirk, and dedicate his time to the rescue of maltreated animals and conservation.

Having defied that diagnosis’ original death sentence, Simon continues to push ahead and has also funded projects such as ‘Feeding Families’ to help with the underprivileged in inner cities.

In addition to the money fronted by Simon, more than 250 other individuals have donated to fund the bull’s transfer via a crowd-funding initiative set up by Irish animal-protection group ARAN and TheGayUK.com.

A court in Kostroma has awarded compensation to a prominent gay rights activist after authorities unlawfully banned a gay-pride parade and two LGBT-themed protests from taking place in the city.

In accordance with the ruling passed down Wednesday by a district court, local authorities will have to pay 3,000 rubles ($55) in moral damages to activist Nikolai Alexeyev, the GayRussia.ru. news site reported.

The decision marks the first time in a decade that Alexeyev, the founder of the Moscow Gay Pride movement, has been compensated for moral damages in regards to his LGBT rights activism in Russia, the report said.

In 2013, the country adopted legislation banning the promotion of nontraditional sexual relations to minors, though homosexuality itself is not illegal in Russia.

In October, the same court ruled that Kostroma authorities would have to pay Alexeyev more than 8,000 rubles ($150) for pecuniary damages and legal fees related to its cancellation of the planned events: a gay pride parade and two protests against the so-called “gay propaganda law.”

Alexeyev was attacked by unknown assailants in Kostroma after traveling to the city in September to participate in a hearing against the ban on the parade and rallies, GayRussia.ru reported at the time.

Rights activists have criticized the adoption of Russia’s anti-gay propaganda law, saying it will lead to a restriction of the rights and freedoms of the country’s LGBT community.

Since 1983, the FDA has placed a blanket ban on blood donations from anyone who has had sex with another man at any time since the nation’s bicentennial in 1976. The ban was instituted as hysteria about the AIDS epidemic was growing and blood screening technology hadn’t been instituted to detect the virus in blood donations. The FDA insists that the decision, now in its fourth decade is “based on the documented increased risk of certain transfusion transmissible infections, such as HIV, associated with male-to-male sex and is not based on any judgment concerning the donor’s sexual orientation.”

Bull.

As the FDA hearings on the ban this week have shown, there is no good scientific reason why gay men and men who have sex with men are singled out for treatment that no one else receives. The FDA insists that it’s concerned about the safety of the blood supply, but here are five good reasons why the agency seems to be motivated by anything but science.

1. The FDA is more lenient with straight men.Have unprotected sex with a female prostitute, and you have to wait a year before you can donate blood. Watch a Judy Garland movie anytime since Gerald Ford was president, and you’re a leper for life.

2. The agency doesn’t differentiate what kind of gay sex. The science proves that unprotected anal sex is a high-risk behavior for HIV transmission. Other types of sex don’t carry anything like the same risk. But the FDA doesn’t care what kind of sex you had, just that you had it with another man. In the FDA’s book, mutual masturbation is as good a reason to ban gay blood donors as unprotected anal sex.

3. Monogamy? Never heard of it. In a monogamous relationship? The FDA doesn’t care and it’s not about to take your word for it in any case. It just care that you’re knocking boots with another man. Imagine if they applied the same standard to heterosexual married couples.

4. Multiple experts have called the ban nonsense. The American Medical Association, the American Red Cross, and the American Association of Blood Banks have all called on the FDA to change its policy on the grounds that its not based on sound science. A one-year deferral, which is common in many countries, would make more sense than a lifetime ban, they argued and would result in one additional transfusion-related infection every 32 years.

5. The technology is incredibly advanced. The most commonly used test to screen blood donations will detect HIV within nine days of the donor becoming infected. The risk of transmission from a donation is from anyone who just become infected with HIV within a little more than the past week. From the way the FDA acts, you think that science has stood still since Reagan was president.

The FDA panel that held hearings to consider lifting the ban was unable to come to any conclusion after two days of “heated deliberations.” The heat seems to come from something other than cold hard science. In the meantime, the agency seems intent on reminding us that the hysteria that fueled the response to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s is still alive and kicking.

Are people born gay or is it a choice? A new study of gay brothers, the largest to date, adds more scientific evidence that there’s a genetic basis for homosexuality.

A genetic analysis of over 409 pairs of gay brothers found that two areas of the human genome, a portion of the X chromosome and a portion of chromosome 8, were associated with the men’s sexual orientation. The findings gel with a smaller study conducted in 1993 that implicated the same area of the X chromosome.

Zeroing In

Before proceeding, it’s important to be clear that this study did not discover a “gay gene.” The regions they identified contain many different genes, so scientists still have a lot of searching to do before finding the specific genes that underlie sexual orientation. With that said, here’s how scientists established a broad genetic link.

Over several years, the study’s lead author Alan Sanders, of the NorthShore Research Institute in Illinois, collected blood and saliva samples from 409 pairs of gay brothers, including sets of non-identical twins. Then, researchers went through each man’s samples looking for unique genetic markers shared by all men in the study.

The 818 men varied in hair color, height, intelligence and other physical attributes. So each man had unique genetic markers matching their unique traits. The one thing they did have in common was that they were all gay. Therefore, if the same genetic variants are found in the same spots in each man, there’s reason to believe these places have something to do with sexual orientation.

The two most frequently shared genetic markers were from the Xq28 region on the X chromosome and the 8q12 region on the 8 chromosome. This commonality suggests there’s a genetic link for male homosexuality. They published their findings Monday in the journal Psychological Medicine.

Not Quite Conclusive

One of the primary weaknesses of the study, as pointed out by Science’sKelly Servick, is that researchers used a type of analysis, genetic linkage, that’s been phased out by more precise techniques.

Genetic linkage studies only identify relationships between broad regions that could contain hundreds of different genes. Today, the linkage technique has been replaced by genome-wide association studies, which identify specific genes associated with traits being studied.

According to the Associated Press, other researchers have questioned the data as well:

Neil Risch, a genetics expert at the University of California, San Francisco, said the data are statistically too weak to demonstrate any genetic link. Risch was involved in a smaller study that found no link between male homosexuality and chromosome X.

Sanders told the New Scientist that he’s already moving forward with the next phase of the study: comparing the genetic markers in gay men to straight men. If the differences are clear, they could narrow the field to fewer genes and also shore up the strength of the associations they’re pointing to.

The head of Calgary’s Catholic school district has dismissed an Liberal MLA’s claims that church leadership is pressuring boards to prevent students from forming gay-straight alliances in Alberta schools.

“There are no gay-straight alliances in the Catholic school system,” Laurie Blakeman, MLA for Edmonton-Centre, said Wednesday. “There’s no openness, there’s no possibility of having gay-straight alliances in the Catholic school system, or the private one, by the way.”

Blakeman said she has not heard from any Catholic parents or students who oppose having gay-straight alliances in their schools. Rather, opposition to the student-led clubs appears to be coming from school trustees and Catholic leadership, she added.

Her comments come a day after the Tory government pushed through a controversial piece of legislation, known as Bill 10, through second reading in the Alberta legislature Tuesday night.

Bill 10, or the Act to Amend the Alberta Bill of Rights to Protect Our Children, makes sexual orientation a prohibited grounds for discrimination and gives students the right to appeal to their school board or the courts if they are prohibited from forming a gay-straight club in a school.

Linda Wellman, chair of the Calgary Catholic School District, said Bill 10 respects parents’ rights as primary educators of their children and includes tough anti-bullying protection for all students.

Wellman said the district has not taken any direction from any Catholic leaders, and takes a “holistic approach” to create a safe and welcoming environment through “inclusive communities” policies to ensure all students are treated with dignity and respect — including its LGBTQ students.

“Certainly there is no club named ‘gay-straight alliance,’” she said. “But there is certainly support there for all students and any student that self-identifies.”

A spokeswoman said the Catholic school board has developed a comprehensive anti-bullying strategy that addresses homophobia through established student groups, the promotion of inclusive and respectful language and mandatory training for staff.

“The simple answer is, if you’re going to form a club everybody can belong,” Wellman added. “There’s a better way of doing this and I don’t think by labelling students is the way to go.”

Joy Bowen-Eyre, chair for the Calgary Board of Education, said students in 20 public schools across the city have started gay-straight alliances and there would be no issue if any student wanted to form a similar club in any other CBE school.

“They just need to let us know,” Bowen-Eyre said. “We will provide that for our students.”

Blakeman, who now intends to introduce amendments to Bill 10 that includes language from her failed private members’ bill, said the Catholic school district is using excuses and false premises to prevent gay-straight alliances from being established in schools.

“Anyone can join a gay-straight alliance. It’s gay and straight,” Blakeman said. “That’s the point. It’s kids coming together to support one another. Clearly if the sexual minority kids were feeling that they were being accommodated in the Catholic or separate school’s various offerings of diversity clubs they wouldn’t be asking for GSAs, but they are.

“I find that a false premise,” Blakeman said. “That’s an excuse because they don’t want to have gay-straight alliances in their schools. They’ve made it sound as though they will somehow accommodate these kids, but they won’t.”

Frank Lowe’s 5-year-old son may not be able to write his name yet, but he can tell you if your shoes are ratchet.

OK, that’s not really true, but it’s funny, which is the point of Lowe’s Twitter persona, @GayAtHomeDad: to use humor to normalize the concept of gay parenting and show mainstream America that “gay is OK.”

“I think when people are uncertain or uncomfortable about something, humor is the best way to break down some of those barriers, and gay parenting is definitely a new concept to a lot of people,” he said.

Not long ago, Lowe was a fairly normal gay man working in fashion. Then he moved to Connecticut with his partner, adopted their son, Briggs, and became a stay-at-home dad.

That’s when he transformed from a “bitchy gay guy” to a “bitchy gay dad” and began deploying sardonic wit in 140 characters on timely topics in parenting, pop culture and politics.

Lowe launched the Twitter persona in 2012 in response to what he perceived as “a significant lack” of gay fathers in the media and pop culture, except for Cam and Mitchell on “Modern Family.” To riff on the gay dad stereotype, he started @GayAtHomeDad as both a “self-deprecating joke” and a way to encourage gay youth to be comfortable in their skin.

It took off, thanks to the compelling username and outlandish comments such as “When my kid scrapes his knee, he gets a Prada Band-Aid,” or “As IF I’m going to ruin his hair using s****y tears-free shampoo. He can cry.”

He also wants to put out the message to the gay community that being a gay parent doesn’t mean you have to be a perfect parent. “Gay parents are expected to behave a certain way, because heaven forbid we mess this up, and I think that’s bulls***. I am definitely a lot more cautious now that I’m a parent, but I still am the same person I was before having a kid.”

His 81,000 followers seem to like his style, engaging in his musings on such topics as marriage equality, the ice bucket challenge and some of his favorite performers. And his range is growing, with a YouTube channel and a feature on the “Today” show.

He also really likes “American Horror Story,” especially Jessica Lange, whose presence imbues much of his time line.

But @GayAtHomeDad is an online persona, he says. The real Frank Lowe is a lot less brassy and flamboyant.

“My sense of humor is still sharp and inappropriate, but I don’t walk around with resting bitch face,” he said.

He’s gay, but he’s a father first and foremost — on Twitter and in real life.

“There is nothing like the relationship I have with my son, and I love him more than anything on this planet,” he said. “Once we adopted him, I had to relinquish a lot of my selfish ways, and that was very cathartic and healthy. He constantly makes me want to be a better person and a better father.”

Few havens for Gambians forced to flee homeland as homophobia sweeps region

The tipoff late one night wasn’t unexpected. Since the crime of “aggravated homosexuality” had come into force in the Gambia in October, Theresa had been living in fear. Then a friend who worked for the country’s notorious police force warned her she would be targeted in a raid in a few hours’ time. Theresa’s crime was being a lesbian. “I wasn’t surprised, I was expecting it anyway because the president has said many times he will kill us all like dogs,” she said. “But I was really, really scared. My friend said, if you don’t go now, it will be too late.” By dawn, Theresa was on a bus out of the country with her best friend, Youngesp, both of whom agreed to speak only if their real names were not used. The two have joined a growing number of people whose lives have been upended by anti-gay laws that trample on an already marginalised minority in west Africa. That they ended up seeking refuge in neighbouring Senegal, where being gay or lesbian is punishable with five-year jail terms, points to the particularly dismal situation in the Gambia. Its politicians have long and publicly railed against homosexuality, with the tone set by President Yahya Jammeh, who this year labelled gay people vermin. In a heated televised statement, the foreign minister announced last weekend that the Gambia would sever all dialogue with the European Union, which has cut aid over its human rights record and criticised its anti-gay laws. Bala Garba Jahumpa said homosexuality was “ungodly” and against African tradition, and that the Gambia would work with other countries on the continent to oppose it. “Gambia’s government will not tolerate any negotiation on the issue of homosexuality with the EU or any international bloc or nation,” Jahumpa told state television. “We would rather die than be colonised twice.” An outcry from western nations over the treatment of lesbian and gay people has often provided fuel for anti-western rhetoric, and sometimes obscured budding homegrown movements for sexual freedom. The African Commission has passed a bill to protect gay and lesbian people against violence and other human rights violations, and gay rights groups are emerging from Botswana to Ivory Coast. But progress is painfully slow. Jammeh, a former soldier who has ruled the Gambia for 20 years, signed the new law against “aggravated homosexuality”, extending the maximum jail terms from 14 years to life. Targets include “serial offenders” who have gay sex, and disabled or HIV-positive people in same-sex relationships. “Detainees have been told that they have to confess to their homosexuality or they would have a device forced into their anus or vagina to test their sexual orientation,” François Patuel, west Africa campaigner for Amnesty International, said of a crackdown that followed the legislation. At least 14 people have been arrested in the past three weeks, including a 17-year-old boy, and have been held in cells with no windows or lights, according to Patuel. Campaigners are battling a wave of homophobia sweeping a continent where being gay is typically considered an illness at best. Last month, Chad looked set to become the 37th African country to outlaw homosexuality, while earlier this year Nigeria hardened its anti-gay rhetoric with a populist law that led to stonings in some cases. Some gay people have scattered to neighbouring countries, but exile in west Africa hardly means a haven: only two of the region’s 16 nations have enshrined gay rights. Neither Theresa nor Youngesp can shrug off the totalitarian shadow of the Gambia. Though their meagre savings are dwindling, they dare venture out only to beg for food or money, convinced secret police from the Gambia will hunt them down. News from home is grim: six of their friends have been arrested and, they believe, tortured into giving up other names. Last week, security agents turned up at Youngesp’s aunt’s house and told the terrified woman they would kill her niece if they found her – a chilling echo of Jammeh’s own vow to slay any citizens attempting to seek asylum abroad for sexual persecution. “I just want to leave Africa to go somewhere I’m not judged all the time,” Theresa said. “But I have to speak out because my friends are still in Gambia, and I really want them out.” Ethan, a gay Nigerian using a pseudonym, is also beginning to speak out. He said depression kicked in at the age of nine when he realised he was gay – and his family would hate him for it. “I have spent most of my life living in fear. [Recently] I saw a video at an online news site where two suspected gay men were being beaten to death with planks of wood; their blood splattered on the ground. Kids were among the onlookers. No one did anything to stop their murder.” A friend had advised him to “lead a sexless life. [But] I’m sick of hearing this homophobia and hiding. I’m speaking out because keeping quiet hasn’t done us any good,” he said defiantly.

By February 2013, Robbie Rogers’ career as a professional soccer player had reached its low point. His stints at Leeds United and lower-league Stevenage in England had been blighted by injury, and because he played so infrequently, he was failing to make an impression on the game. At the age of 25, Rogers had also reached a point in his life where he finally felt comfortable coming out to his parents, siblings, and close friends—if not to his teammates.

His professional and personal lives were like two horses pulling in opposite directions. Something had to give. “All I could focus on now was coming out and getting as far away from soccer as possible.” Having released himself from his contract with Leeds, Rogers announced his retirement in a terse note on his website headlined “The Next Chapter …” In doing so, he shook up professional soccer entirely:

For the past 25 years I have been afraid, afraid to show whom I really was because of fear. Fear that judgment and rejection would hold me back from my dreams and aspirations. … I always thought I could hide this secret. Football was my escape, my purpose, my identity. Football hid my secret, gave me more joy than I could have ever imagined. … Now is my time to step away. It’s time to discover myself away from football.

But he didn’t stay away from the game. Three months later, in May 2013, Rogers signed a contract with the LA Galaxy of Major League Soccer, becoming the first openly gay man to play in one of North America’s top five men’s professional sports. His new memoir, Coming Out to Play, chronicles this journey from childhood through college sports and his professional career—retiring, coming out, playing once more.

“The hardest part for me was visiting those childhood memories and the effects that they had on me,” Rogers told me in a phone interview from Los Angeles, where he now resides. On one level, writing the book was “very therapeutic,” but on the other hand, “it put me back in that place as I was reading my journals and remembering the terror I felt before I came out.”

Born in Huntington Beach, California, Rogers’ childhood was geographically divided between his father’s house in San Pedro and his mother’s in Rolling Hills, a little farther north along the coast. But his center was always sports and specifically soccer, which he played from the age of 3 and in which he was considered a “borderline prodigy” by age 5.

The milieu in which Rogers grew up was Catholic and socially conservative, far removed from the city’s gayborhood in West Hollywood. “There are a lot of places in the city where gay people don’t live. I didn’t have any gay friends, and my parents didn’t have any gay friends. Had I had more experience and interactions with gay people, it might have made me more open-minded to myself and my own feelings,” he says. “Not having that experience, including simple conversations, probably kept me closeted for longer.”

What is clear, too, is that Rogers’ internal struggle was complicated by the aggressively heteronormative culture of college sports and professional soccer. “If you don’t hook up with a girl by the weekend, you’re gay,” Rogers recounts hearing during afternoon training a couple of weeks into his first semester at the University of Maryland. In the memoir, he notes more than one instance where he hooked up with or dated girls in order to keep friends and teammates from thinking he might be gay.

Did he not consider the women in these situations? “When I was younger and in high school, I was just thinking about myself. I was a selfish teenager who wanted to be a professional soccer player, and the idea was that if I was gay, I couldn’t be a soccer player. When I was younger, I always thought I would have to hide. I was never really thinking about other people.” What’s more, “I actually thought that maybe, if I met the right girl, I might not even be gay.”

After his college career with the Maryland Terrapins, Rogers had an unsuccessful stint in the Netherlands with SC Heerenveen, before returning to the States, spending five seasons with Columbus Crew, playing for the United States soccer team in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and accruing 18 appearances for the senior international side. Success back home brought him to the attention of Leeds United and drew him to England.

In Coming Out to Play, it appears that the Leeds United facility was the most homophobic environment Rogers ever encountered. “Walking into the Leeds locker room was like diving into a shoe-box-sized space filled with testosterone-charged gladiators,” he writes. “There were way more homophobic remarks than I could count. My teammates would throw around the word ‘faggot’ like it was an all-purpose put-down.”

Was this the worst environment he played in? “The soccer culture is just different in England,” he told me. “It’s the main sport, and it’s hard to compare to the States,” where many of the players go to college. “Guys say things because teammates laugh, and that needs to change. My biggest issue was the changing room and the fear of not being accepted by teammates.”

Since coming out and returning to soccer, Rogers has found the atmosphere at the LA Galaxy and in the MLS “overwhelmingly supportive.” In the beginning, “I had to come to terms with being the only gay man in the locker room. Last year, it was a bit of a burden. It was really rough and I wasn’t ready,” he says. This year, though, “I loved it: being on a team as one of the guys, contributing on a field and having people respect me for what I’ve done.”

Rogers, however, thinks that the best thing he can do is “focus on being a footballer, since being an out gay footballer is very helpful for people.” Indeed, his public presence as a gay soccer player has been and continues to be inspirational for countless young gay men (including myself). At a time when Rogers says, FIFA “doesn’t care at all” about the struggle of LGBTQ athletes and homophobia in soccer, visibility and individual acts of courage remain the surest way to change the face of the game.

“I would never force anyone to come out,” Rogers concluded. “But the only way really to change the locker room and the clubs and the culture of soccer” is to do just that.

Jennifer discovered from her husband Tom’s emails that he was meeting Brad for sex. She came to see me, heartbroken, sure that her marriage to her “gay” husband was doomed. But when I examined Tom, I discovered he wasn’t gay. He had been sexually abused by his coach when he was a boy, and his compulsion to have sex with men was a “trauma reenactment,” which could be eliminated through therapy. Of course, Tom and Jennifer still had to work through the betrayal of his sexual acting out, but his issues did not present a fundamental impediment to the marriage. Had he been gay, then Tom and Jennifer’s challenges would have been much greater.

Seeking sex with men does not make a man gay. Sexual orientation is a complex state of being. You aren’t gay because you “act gay.” You’re gay because you are gay. When I examine a man who’s questioning his sexual orientation, I ask him about childhood abuse and other traumas that can lead straight men to seek sex with men. I’ve also developed a checklist of characteristics of gay men to help me with diagnosis. These characteristics go beyond mere sexual acts. Here is a simplified list:

The beach test: Gay men see the men on a beach, not the women.

Youthful noticing: Before puberty, gay boys notice other boys with a kind of giggling delight, just as straight boys do girls.

Waking up: Straight guys, even those who have sex with men, don’t want to wake up next to one.

Falling in love: A gay man can fall in romantic love with a man; straight men don’t.

Romantic hopes and dreams with a male partner: After a period of promiscuous “gay adolescence,” a gay man will yearn to “settle down.”

Many couples come to see me because the husband’s unconventional sexual interests are interpreted as “gay.” I’m amazed that people continue to believe that an interest in anal sex makes a man gay. Sometimes “kinks” are acted out as compulsions and need to be addressed by therapy to give the man more control over his impulses, but they usually are not “proof” that the man is gay.

Joel came to see me, afraid his wife might discover his secret. He was meeting couples to engage in very specific sex “scenes.” He wanted to be “forced” by a woman to watch her make love to her husband — even to help her make love to her husband — but if the woman wasn’t there, he wasn’t interested. His compulsion for this kink (commonly called “cuckolding”) might seem gay (because of the man in the room), but in fact I’ve never heard of a gay man with this interest.

I did help Joel become less compulsive. In his therapy we uncovered a complex situation in his childhood in which his mother doted on him when his father was absent on business trips but ignored him completely when his father was home. His longing to be included as a child had been sexualized in his psyche as a cuckolding kink. I could not “cure” him of his fantasy; he’ll always be aroused by some version of it. What we achieved in therapy was freeing him from the compulsion to act on it. As a result, he didn’t need to continue to meet with couples for sex.

When a married man and woman come to me for clarity, they end up in one of three situations:

The man is acting out a homosexual behavioral imprinting from childhood, which often fades with therapy.

The man is gay or bi, and the couple must decide how to stay together or part because of it.

The man has a kink whose compulsivity may be controlling and ruining his life (and the marriage), but through therapy he can learn to manage and moderate it, even though it will never go away entirely.

But wait! You want to know if your husband is gay. Without the terror of homophobia clouding our vision with horrendous legal and social consequences, it is relatively easy to determine if a man is gay. He can determine it himself, using the simple tools I noted above: beach test, youthful noticing, and so on. Bisexuality is subtler. The best way to tell if a man is bisexual is to sit down with him and talk about it.

One final thought: No one — not even an “expert” — has the right to tell you to panic and divorce. You most likely understand what you’re dealing with better than anybody. You can choose for yourself. It’s your future. You have options.

This week I talked with Justin Luke Zirilli about his new book,The Gay Gospel, a survival guide written specifically for 20-something gay men that tackles everything they need to know after coming out. It’s a first-of-its-kind guidebook addressing dating, sex, breakups, family issues, personal finance and more. Zirilli is one of New York City’s leading gay promoters, presenting three of the largest weekly gay dance parties with his nightlife company BoiParty. In The Gay Gospel he draws from his personal experience surviving his own tumultuous 20s, and from the countless requests for personal advice that he receives from party guests and friends alike. A quick, easy, fun read with no-nonsense and sometimes hysterical nuggets of wisdom and advice, The Gay Gospel is a bible for young gay men wading into adulthood.

I also talked with Zirilli about his spin on LGBT issues. When asked what he would like to see happen for LGBT equality in the next few years, he stated:

I would absolutely like to see marriage equality in all 50 of the states. I would also love to see the end of discrimination in the workplace for those in the LGBT community. We have very simple beginnings. I live in Manhattan, and it’s still hard to believe there are certain states where your very identity can endanger your ability to work. We start there, and from there we can go anywhere else. That is absolutely, for me, the most important thing to get nailed down in the next few years.

Justin Luke Zirilli is the president of the New York-based gay nightlife company BoiParty, which he co-owns with his business partner Alan Picus. He is also the creator of “Gorgeous, Gay and Twenty-Something,” a private international Facebook group now comprising over 8,000 members. Besides The Gay Gospel, Zirilli has authored the bestselling gay novels Gulliver Takes Manhattan and Gulliver Takes Five. Recently he also launched a new fragrance, Pink Boi. He lives in New York City with his boyfriend, mashup DJ JoeRedHead.

Danny Dyer, Britain’s hardest man (according to himself), is also the nation’s most confused.

Much like the rest of us, he’s not sure why he’s ever been considered an “icon” among the LGBT community, despite building an entire career out of being a professional geezer actor.

“I don’t know about this gay icon title I have been given,” said the Eastenders star.

“I know some gay men look up to me for some of the movies and plays I have done and they have always supported me quietly.

“I suppose being on EastEnders they are thinking: ‘Well done. We always knew you had it in you’.”

Dyer was praised for playing the role of Mick Carter in the long-running soap. In particular, for his involvement in a storyline, broadcast earlier this year, in which his son, Johnny Carter (Sam Strike), comes out as gay.

“Mick Carter is the closest I have played to myself,” he continues. “This gangster hardman s**t is all bollocks, you get pigeon holed.

“My life has changed, being a part of a show which I never thought I would be part of.”

The show became the subject of homophobic abuse on social media after it aired a gay kiss between Johnny Carter, played by Sam Strike, and Danny Pennant, played by former Hollyoaksalumni Gary Lucy in January.

Out of the 7.8million who tuned in to watch the scene, the BBC received official complaint from just two viewers.

“2014, and gay teens kissing on a soap still draws complaints. Makes me even prouder to have written that ep,” Eastenderswriter Pete Lawson posted on Twitter at the time.

“10 years ago Coronation Street had complaints when I wrote Todd kissing Nick… now complaints about EastEnders gay kiss… no progress,” Darren Little, another of the writers who contributed to the storyline, added.

Dyer defended against criticism by saying that if his part had helped young, gay men feel better about coming out, then he was “proud”. He also posed on the cover of the March issue ofAttitude magazine, alongside Sam Strike.

Editor’s note: In this month’s episode of On China join Kristie Lu Stout for a revealing conversation with China’s leading gay rights advocates. The show premieres at 5:30pm Hong Kong time on Thursday. For other air times please click here.

I’m in Two Cities Cafe, a popular meeting place for the local gay community. Here, I meet with some of the country’s leading LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) advocates to learn about gay identity in China.

In the last two decades, China’s LGBT community has made huge gains in social acceptance.

Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1997, and a few years later it was removed from an official list of mental illnesses.

But unlike their counterparts in the West, China’s LGBT community does not have to face down strident political opposition or right-wing religious uproar.

For them, the biggest source of pressure comes from the family, brought on in part by China’s one-child policy.

“You have only one child so you want your child to be as ‘normal’ as everybody else,” says Xiaogang Wei, Executive Director of the Beijing Gender Health Education Institute.

“There’s also the pressure of carrying on the family line,” adds Chi Heng Foundation founder Chung To.

Fake marriages?

Many Chinese gays and lesbians are responding to the family pressure with “cooperative marriages” — gay men and lesbian women marrying each other out of social and economic convenience, often finding each other online.

“I grew up in the 80s and 90s and most of the people my age, everyone, got into marriage — no matter gay or straight,” says Xu Bin, founder of the advocacy group Common Language.

“If you’re not, you’re a monster.”

Despite advances, the social stigma remains immense. According to a 2013 survey by U.S. research group Pew, only 21% of China’s population was in favor of the acceptance of homosexuality.

Same-sex marriage remains a taboo topic for many across China.

And a number of clinics in China offer so-called “conversion” shock treatment to “cure” homosexuality.

“I think Tim Cook’s coming out of the closet is very important to the Chinese society, especially in the business world,” Wei tells me.

“It also very effectively motivated people into thinking about the direct and non-direct connections between homosexual people and the products that we all use in our lives.”

New generation

With these forces for change coming from both outside and inside China, the country’s LGBT community is forging ahead, despite its unique set of challenges.

“For the past ten years, the most change probably came from the visibility of the LGBT community in Chinese society. For the next ten years, I would say it’s the visibility of LGBT rights in China,” says Xu.

As the focus shifts to a stronger call for greater rights, China’s pioneering gay activists are looking to the younger generation to pick up the mantle.

“This generation is a lot more confident and self-assertive,” To tells me.

“And they have more resources,” adds Xu.

“In the end, I think we’re fighting not just for a better situation for LGBT, but a better situation for all minorities and vulnerable people,” says To.

Out and proud, China’s gay activists are an increasingly vocal minority pushing for change that could very well reach every corner of Chinese society.

John Barrowman kissed a man last night in a calculated dig at the 42 Commonwealth states that criminalize homosexuality

Well, this is certainly a new perspective on the Glasgow kiss.

The gay Scottish-American actor John Barrowman kissed another man on live TV last night during the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games as the Queen looked on.

Mr Barrowman, who married his partner, the architect Scott Gill, last year in California, made his gesture at the opening of the games in Glasgow which are open to all members of the Commonwealth, the voluntary grouping of former British empire dominions, which includes Canada and Australia (but not America).

Homosexual activity remains a criminal offence, often with draconian punishment, in 40 of the 53 countries within the Commonwealth, including Uganda, Nigeria, and Jamaica.

Millions of citizens and politicians in those countries were watching last night’s event.

During the first few minutes of the opening ceremony, Barrowman kissed a man waiting at the aisle for him before the pair skipped away hand in hand, in tribute to Scottish wedding venue Gretna Green.

The reaction was overwhelmingly positive, but we’ll let the tweets speak for themselves…

The opening ceremony of the @Glasgow2014 games begin with openly lesbian Karen Dunbar and openly gay John Barrowman. #lgbti

Young marchers at 2013’s St Patrick’s Day parade in New York. Photograph: Ramin Talaie/Getty Images

For the last 10 weeks, Bill de Blasio, the fledgling mayor of New York, has been painting a fresh face on this endlessly changing city. Under the banner “a tale of two cities”, he has pledged to overcome the growing gulf between rich and poor and re-establish New York as a global hub of progressive politics.

But in the last few days he has been embroiled in a tale of two cities of a different order. Not rich versus poor, but tolerant and modern versus bigoted and antiquated.

The focal point is the St Patrick’s Day parade, the oldest Irish tradition in America, that has been held every year since 1762, more than a decade before the declaration of independence. On 17 March, 200,000 marchers, many in city uniform, will strut up Fifth Avenue from 44th Street to 79th Street in front of a million-strong crowd in celebration of all things Irish. Well, not all things Irish. Not gay or lesbian Irish. In 1991 a gay group that gained an invitation to march was showered with abuse from spectators, prompting organisers to institute a ban the following year. Since 1993, when the federal courts sanctioned the ban, the parade’s organisers have blocked the attendance of gay individuals or groups who openly display their sexual identity.

A similar prohibition has existed in the St Patrick’s Day parade in Boston since 1995, when the US supreme court ruled it was the organisers’ first amendment right to dictate who they allowed to march.

This perennial sore, which has provoked protests every year for more than two decades, has now erupted into the public glare, partly as a result of the stance taken by De Blasio, who has broken with tradition and vowed to boycott the proceedings.

The move is in tune with the mayor’s actions in his first two months in office, in which he has attempted to kick the city, sometimes squealing, in a liberal direction.

With all that under way, De Blasio could hardly stand by and watch impassively as the St Patrick’s Day parade went ahead, anti-gay ban stubbornly in place. As a result, on 17 March the parade will go ahead without the mayor of New York in attendance for the first time in more than 20 years. De Blasio will earn himself the distinction of being the first mayor since David Dinkins in 1993 to boycott the event.

For seasoned observers of New York, such as Tom Finkel, editor-in-chief of Village Voice, the surprising element of De Blasio’s stand is how long it has been in coming. “He clearly feels the climate is ripe for this – his predecessors [Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani] didn’t judge it expedient to cross this line in the past.”

Finkel believes the fact the ban still exists in 2014 underlines the multifariousness of New York, or as Walt Whitman famously said about himself, that it “contains multitudes”. “When New Yorkers look outward we are tempted to see the world as a very progressive place, but if you look a little closer – even inside the city – you find it’s not so simple.”

And yet a wind of change is blowing forcefully across America. Seventeen states, including New York, have incorporated gay marriages, and even the most conservative states such as Arizona and Kansas have held back from enacting overtly discriminatory anti-gay legislation, for fear of damaging the local economy.

Which leaves the New York parade looking all the more retrograde and anomalous, bizarrely so for a city that lays claim to being the progressive capital of America. So what has the parade committee to say about all this?

The organisers did not respond to a request for comment from the Observer. It is perhaps a sign of the times that a prominent supporter would defend the ban only on the basis of anonymity. The individual, who works for one of the parade’s big sponsors, said that the story was far more nuanced than LGBT campaigners had suggested. “This is a parade that celebrates the Irish Catholic community in America. We want to be tolerant and accepting,” he said.

So why wasn’t the parade tolerant and accepting?

“The parade committee has been guarded about keeping politics out of the parade. It is not anti-homosexual, it merely wants to prevent people carrying signs that affirm homosexuality.”

The sponsor went on to suggest that gay and lesbian groups were actively avoiding applying to march because that suited their political purposes. He recommended they set up a group in honour of Fr Mychal Judge, chaplain to the New York City fire department who died in 9/11 and who was revealed after his death to have been a non-practising gay man. “They could march under his name and avoid words like ‘pride’ or ‘homosexuality’, and that might be fine,” he said.

A similar approach has been taken in Boston this year where parade organisers have been in groundbreaking, but so far fruitless, discussions with gay rights group MassEquality. The sticking point was the insistence by the parade committee that marchers not wear anything that signalled their sexual orientation.

“We made it clear that we would only march if LGBT people are able to march openly and honestly,” said MassEquality’s director Kara Coredini. To which the head of the parade committee, Philip Wuschke, replied: “We gave them what we figured was reasonable. They wanted it all.”

Emmaia Gelman, whose ancestors came from Co Cavan in Ireland, runs the blog of the New York-based LGBT group Irish Queers. She explained why she hadn’t applied to march: “Why would I want to? I don’t want to march with guys who hate me.”

Her only objective, she said, was to put an end to the homophobia that the parade enshrined. In that regard, she and her fellow campaigners were disappointed that in their view De Blasio had not gone far enough. The mayor might be boycotting the event himself, but, ignoring the demands of protesters, he has made clear he will allow officers of the NYPD and fire department, who make up a large proportion of the marchers, to attend if they wish.

That has given Bill Bratton, the media-savvy new police commissioner of New York, space to announce that he will attend. “My sister is gay,” Bratton said, a remark that failed to impress LGBT campaigners.

“City officials, whose salaries are paid for by the people of New York, absolutely do not have the right to march in a homophobic parade. That’s a hard message for De Blasio to give to police officers about their favourite parade, but it’s still the right thing to do,” Gelman said.

So the 2014 St Patrick’s Day parade promises to be another lively affair, and not just because of the copious amounts of alcohol that will flow throughout the city. For De Blasio, the dispute threatens to become a persistent headache that could run throughout his term in office, dragging on him as he struggles to revive New York‘s reputation as the world’s greatest liberal city.

Dhaka: Bangladesh’s gay community has launched its first magazine in a bid to promote greater acceptance of homosexuals who face widespread discrimination in the conservative Muslim-majority country, the editor said on Sunday.

The 56-page glossy magazine called Roopbaan was officially launched in the capital Dhaka late on Saturday at an invitation-only event that included leading members of the gay community and human rights activists.

“We hope it’ll raise awareness about the community and will lead to wider social tolerance of the gays and lesbians here,” Ahmed, 25, said, adding that he hoped the magazine’s stories about issues impacting gay people would increase understanding.

Gays and lesbians suffer discrimination and other human rights abuses in Bangladesh where sex between people of the same gender is punishable by up to life in prison.

Many gays and lesbians are forced to hide their sexual identity and live double lives for fear of reprisals in the country, which is 90 per cent Muslim and deeply conservative.

Ahmed said the magazine, which plans to publish quarterly, will not be available on street newsstands, for fear of inflaming tensions and sparking a backlash against the gay community.

Instead Roopbaan – the name of a Bengali fairytale of a beautiful young girl married to a boy – will be available through phone orders.